Writing news (another book!)

Cripes, I’ve just realised I haven’t blogged since June! In case you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to, here’s a quick newsflash (actually, there’s four of them):

NEWSFLASH 1:
In July I was commissioned to write another book. This time it was a pocket wellbeing/self-help book. I’m never sure whether I’m allowed to reveal the titles of these books due to the publishers using a pseudonym, so I’ll keep schtum for now in case I get into trouble!

This means that in addition to Oh Sugar!, I have now written five pocket wellbeing/self-help books which have been published under a pseudonym (one commissioned in July plus four written in-house whilst working for a publishing company).

Surely, I am now a bona fide author! Oh yeah.

NEWSFLASH 2:
Oh Sugar! has been translated into seven languages – Hungarian, Dutch, Estonian, Latvian, Korean, Italian and Slovak (apparently it’s ‘Slovak’, not ‘Slovakian’).

It’s funny seeing my book in different languages. Here’s the Dutch edition:

And here’s the Slovak edition:

NEWSFLASH 3:
I have been taking part in John Williams’ ‘Bestseller Blueprint’ course, helping out in the online community. John wrote the bestselling Screw Work Let’s Play and his new book Screw Work Break Free has just been published (I did his amazing 30 Day Challenge course in 2013, if you remember – highly recommended if you ever get the chance).

NEWSFLASH 4:
On my birthday this week I received quite possibly the best birthday present ever – a limited edition Quentin Blake print from Roald Dahl’s ‘The BFG’!

To understand why I love this print so much, you need to read the words that go with it…

“‘…very cautiously, he poured the precious dream into the wide end of the trumpet. He steered the trumpet through the curtains, far into the room… He took a deep breath. He puffed up his cheeks and pooff, he blew.”

Aw….

So where am I at with writing my own children’s books? Well, so far I have written five picture books and I’m 20,000 words into my children’s novel (the one I stopped writing in order to write Oh Sugar! – these non-fiction books keep distracting me, dammit!).

None of my picture books have been published (yet), but one manuscript is currently with a publisher and another is with a literary agent… and in the absence of any rejection letters, there is hope my friends!

You will be the first to know if anything exciting happens (well, after my mum) and in the meantime, I’m busy scribbling notes for my next picture book…

Note to self:  stop scribbling notes on random bits of used paper! The example above is a To-Do list. It has mysterious items like ‘mackerel festival’, ‘ice cream’ and ‘aurora colour’ on it, none of which have anything to do with my picture book. Not good.