Tag Archives: magic

School visit

One of the things I’d been looking forward to as a new author was meeting young readers at school visits and library events. Sadly, the pandemic threw a spanner in the works, and my carefully prepared, action-packed workshops have been … Continue reading

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The Railway Tunnel

At the weekend, we travelled up to North Devon to finally celebrate my mum’s 70th, eighteen months late. We’d re-booked the holiday cottage three times. It was a wonderful, glowing time of family, good food, long walks, and pottering around … Continue reading

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In Conversation

I’ll be honest, I took September hard. It started with being away in Scotland when the swifts left. This year more than any other, I was desperate for the light to linger, and the darkness and damp to stay away. … Continue reading

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Six months!

Saturday marked the six-month birthday of The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle hitting bookshop shelves so I couldn’t resist celebrating with a cat cake! Publication had already been delayed by a year due to Covid, and even then, released just … Continue reading

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Summer Memories

Here’s a few memories from the summer to share…  I met up with a couple of friends at the book festival in Edinburgh. It was lovely to get together and chat books, art and writing to our hearts’ content. The … Continue reading

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Folktales: Witches

In my book The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, Avery has no memory of the group of witches who promised to look after her when she was a baby. The witches live in a magical house called Cunningfoot, with doors that … Continue reading

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Folktales: My Baddies

At the beginning of my book The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, Avery has a horrible feeling she is being followed by something not nice… and it turns out she’s correct! There’s a few baddies in the book, and my ideas for them … Continue reading

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Folktales: Hearthfolk

In my book The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, Avery meets a character called Knuckle. He is broad-shouldered, with hands the size of teapots. He has black freckles clustering his shoulders, arms, and hairline, and every time he sneezes, sparkling embers … Continue reading

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Folktales: Crannogs and The Crannog – Monsters in the Landscape

In my book, The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, there is a great monster, kept in an enchanted sleep in a cavern under Edinburgh. The creature is called a Crannog. A crannog is not really a monster at all, but when … Continue reading

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Folktales: Scottish Faeries and ‘othering’

I’ve written in my previous post about the Cat Fae element of Avery’s character in my book, The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle. For those of you who don’t know, one of Avery’s secrets is that she is a Cat Fae. … Continue reading

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