Linda's News
Hi everyone
I love it now the spring flowers are coming out even if it is still rather cold as I write this! I hope you all had a good half term. I have been busy rewriting Loving Spirit books one and two. As a writer you never just write a book once, you usually go over and over it making it as good as you possibly can. Once you have a draft you are happy with you send it to your editor who workd for the publisher and goes through and makes more suggestions for how it can be improved then you do another draft and finally it gets checked over by a proof-reader for any mistakes that are still in there! It is quite a long process – it usually takes about a year for me between writing a book and it coming out in the shops. The illustrations also need to be done and the cover designed. I have seen the cover for Loving Spirit book 1 and it is absolutely gorgeous! It comes out in August and is really for readers who are 9+. Look out for it if you are one of my older readers!
I have been out and about quite a bit the last few months. After the launch of my new magical series Skating School which was in Hyde Park in January, I went to Middlesbrough to do a book signing and met lots of people there. I am going to the Waterstones in Manchester’s Trafford Centre in March – see the details below if you live near to there and want to come and meet me! I am also off to meet up with thirty other children’s writers next week to talk about writing books. Some of my best writing friends will be there including Liz Kessler, Ann Bryant, Julie Sykes and Dave Gatward, so I am really looking forward to it. We always have a great time when we get together! A couple of weeks ago I went to visit Long Barn Stables, a show pony yard. I needed to do some research for Loving Spirit because the series is set on a showing yard. It was a fantastic day – the yard is run by Julie Templeton and her business partner Fiona Wallace. They were so helpful and friendly and it was amazing seeing around the barns and horseboxes – and to see all the ponies of course!
The first four Skating School books are out in the shops now, and the next two come out in March. They look lovely. It is great fun going round and talking about them to people. The books are set in a magic land and although there is lots of skating in them they are also all about girls making friends and having adventures. The girls who go to the magic skating school in the books get to meet frost fairies and ice dragons and go camping in the woods and design their own ice-skating dresses and have skating competitions. At the end of each series one of the girls gets to be chosen to be the Ice Princess and has to perform a very difficult but important task in the magic land. If you read the series I hope you like it!
Enjoy the springtime!
Love Linda xxx
P.S. I am really glad so many of you are enjoying Sky Horses. I have had some really lovely letters about the series. THANK YOU!
WHERE YOU CAN SEE LINDA:
Saturday March 20th at 1pm
Waterstones Manchester Trafford Centre
42 Regent Crescent
Trafford Centre
Manchester
Please contact the store for details.
Saturday/Sunday June 5th/6th 2010 – day and time still to be confirmed, event at The Wychwood Festival, Cheltenham.
More details will be available soonNEW BOOKS!
Sky Horses: Cloud Magic (Book One); The Royal Foal (Book Two); The Whispering Tree (Book Three); The Eye of the Storm (Book Four)
Skating School: White Skate Wishes (Book One); Violet Skate Friends (Book Two); Scarlet Skate Magic (Book Three); Pink Skate Party (Book Four). And out in March: Blue Skate Dreams (Book Five) and Silver Skate Surprise (Book Six).
