First I have to complete a promise made this afternoon: HELLO TO EVERYONE AT NEWSOME SUMMER SCHOOL! Thank you for an enjoyable and cheery day, and hope all you have a lovely time over the next week and a bit. But remember - don't lean back and close your eyes! There may be worms about.

Second cheer? I read out a short section from my newest project to my Newsome friends. They were really helpful with their comments, so I've now got a much clearer idea about how to rewrite this important section.

Third cheer? Arrived home to a thick envelope from GirlGuiding UK. It was a set of the new RAINBOW handbooks. Why did I get them, you ask, as I'm certainly not five and a half? Because I have written four stories about Olivia, the main Rainbow character. Fun to see the publications, and fun to write too.

So a lovely time today, to follow a sunny day at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens Children's Day yesterday, where I also learnt about bees and how to make sunflower mobiles. Tomorrow? A mystery! (What an exciting life I lead.)
  ¶ 5:55 PM

Another insomniac read to blog about.

Yes, I know it's another young adult/teen book, but I really admired "Looking for JJ". (Scholastic), read overnight recently. It tells of a girl released after being confined as a child killer, complete with a "new identity". Author Anne Cassidy reveals a dreadful fictional story in restrained but compelling prose, gradually uncovering every complexity and downturn of hope, both in the past and in the present. Uncomfortably memorable, especially about loneliness.

Maybe a must-read for Michael Howard - or Tony & David, the happy pair?
  ¶ 1:55 PM