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One day, I started writing a story. I wrote it in secret. I thought about it before I went to sleep. I thought about it when I woke up. It very rapidly became a kind of obsession. It wasn't planned out; I just wrote for me. Besides, it was a horrible mess which only a mother could love. My mum did love it, when I apologetically asked if she'd read it. She said I should carry on writing so I did.
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Then in 2014, I had the brilliant fortune to meet Imogen Cooper, previously Head Editor at Chicken House Publishing. Through The Golden Egg Academy, she took the novel I'd been wrestling with in hand. Make it first person, she said. Add a pet, more conflict, greater peril. More, more, more! I also met many fantastic writers through the academy who also gave, and still give, invaluable feedback - and cake.
That novel then landed at the feet of agent Kate Shaw at The Viney Shaw Agency, who represents such hallowed children's writers as Holly Smale, James Nichol, Lorraine Gregory and Vashti Hardy, to name but a few! She saw its heart and took me on. Since then, I've written two more novels and lots of short stories for all sorts of ages. Writing is still very much an obsession.
That novel then landed at the feet of agent Kate Shaw at The Viney Shaw Agency, who represents such hallowed children's writers as Holly Smale, James Nichol, Lorraine Gregory and Vashti Hardy, to name but a few! She saw its heart and took me on. Since then, I've written two more novels and lots of short stories for all sorts of ages. Writing is still very much an obsession.