Ready, Steady, Go!


The time has come!
...a wonderful research trip


I’ve been on a wonderful research trip and filled an entire notebook with jottings.

I’ve read stacks of books and explored hundreds of websites stuffing my brain with fascinating facts. 

I’ve mulled over the characters and listened to them talking to each other in my head for weeks.

I’ve plotted and schemed and produced a long, rambling plan of every twist and turn.

I’ve had a brain-scrambling phone call with my editor extraordinaire, Amber, who uses her amazing editorial super-powers to hunt down all the gaping black holes in the plot and then fill them all back in with inspirational advice.


new look noticeboard
I’ve organised my office and shuffled my Adventure Island pictures and cuttings to one end of my noticeboard to make room for a new display of motivational materials.

I’ve cleaned the house, swept the drive and tidied the flowerbeds

Because tomorrow morning I will sit down at my computer, take a deep breath, type the words “Chapter 1” and start writing  - not just a new book - but a whole new series!

It’s terribly exciting and just a little bit terrifying. After fourteen Adventure Island books I have to leave behind the familiar seagulls and gorse bushes and cliff tops of Cornwall. And I won’t have my old friends to guide me along. How will I manage without Jack telling me jokes, Emily taking notes, Scott working things out and Drift finding clues?

Gulp!

New setting, new characters, new themes.

But some things will stay the same. There will still be mystery and adventure, intrigue, deception, peril and puzzles to solve.

Yep, all my favourite things!

I’m ready.

So, excuse me while I take down my lucky book-cover-of-the-Mystery-of-the-Dinosaur-Discovery-made-out-of-icing from pride of place on top of my computer screen and replace it with a lucky scarab beetle amulet and canopic jar (unused, you’ll be relieved to know!) made out of white alabaster.

feeling lucky?

You can probably guess where the next book will be set . . .