Ten-Minute Blog Break - 6th January

Welcome to the future! According to Back to the Future II, people in 2015 should be riding on hoverboards or driving flying cars. Sadly, this doesn't yet seem to have come to pass, but at least someone invented the blog post!

Christmas came late for Chitra Soundar, who definitely wins this week's prize for perseverance. Seven years after first writing a picture book about Anasi (the West African spider-spirit) and a mere two years after she first submitted it to OUP Pakistan, they finally accepted it for publication! Such are The Perks of Patience.

Alistair Lane has set himself a target for the year - writing 12 stories in 12 months. But he doesn't want to do it alone, and he's set up a Facebook group to encourage other writers to join him. Read Alistair's blog post to find out all about his new collective.

Space on the Bookshelf are trying something a little different this week, with their first 3D review of a self-published book. SCBWI author Amanda Hatter is the lucky recipient, and her novel Callum Fox and the Mousehole Ghost is clearly one of those books that gives self-publishing a good name!

Is it a bird? Is it a horse? No, it's a Dartmoor Pegasus! Enjoy Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve's latest burst of adorable whimsy, as it unfolds post-by-post on Sarah's blog.

I'm sure we all managed to leave plenty of used wrapping paper and empty chocolate boxes behind in 2014, but sadly, library closures seem harder to shake off. Nicola Morgan has written an impassioned post about the fight to save Falkirk School Library Service, with a deadline to leave feedback for the council by the end of this week.

Whenever I've tried to write a review of my year, I generally can't remember more than the last couple of months. Dee Kirkby was smarter than me - she's been recording all the very nicest bits of 2014 as they happened, and gives us a quick rundown on her blog.

Nick.


A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Nick has delved into his archives for the third year running, and found some wonderful lost lunacy for your reading pleasure. Check out The Museum of Me - The Lost Years.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shout Nick and great all-round blog-break mentions! Happy New year to you all.

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  2. Who ate my comment?! I will try again:

    Thanks, Nick. You put a lot of effort into these round-ups and I'm very grateful :)

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  3. Truly useful & inspirational - I definitely need an extra day in the week to give all these fabulous blogs the attention they deserve. Cheers Nick for pointing us in the right direction.

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