Happy New Year

on
Christmas Eve - Santa has been!
After a festive season full of family, food and fun I'm back at my desk finishing the first draft of Time Dogs 4 and looking forward to the first two school visits of term next week.

I love the beginning of a new year. It's like opening a new notebook, the umpire's whistle at the start of a netball match or waking up to freshly fallen snow.  That blank page demands my neatest handwriting. That whistle reminds me to play better than last time. Fresh snow invites running around and snow angels.

This year I'm planning to start writing something new. I have lots of ideas but I don't know which one I'll run with yet.  I'm going to set myself some big physical challenges. I'll maybe climb a mountain or run a marathon - I haven't decided yet. I'm going to travel to some far-off places.  I'll be looking out for great stories ideas all the while.

Travel will be the theme for 2019.  Time travel to be precise! In June the first two books in my new Time Dogs series will publish in the USA.  They're all about a group of canine friends who accidentally discover a time machine and zoom off through time and space on some extraordinary adventures - meeting real dogs from history along the way. These stories have already had a long and winding journey from the initial idea several years ago, so I'm hugely excited (and nervous!) that they will soon be real actual books.

Time Dogs One
Would you like a sneak peak at Books 1 and 2? Of course you would! You're in luck - you can see the covers and the first few pages here on the Macmillan website.

I'm so delighted and honoured to have been paired with the brilliant illustrator, Misa Saburi. Misa has brought the stories to life with gorgeous line drawings that capture the characters and action perfectly. I love the way she drawn the dogs - the balance of cuteness and realism is just lovely. I couldn't have asked for more.

Happy New Year.

Wishing you joy and peace and success and fun in everything you do this year - even if it includes time travel!

Here's to new notebooks and fresh snow!