SCBWI Members Sparkle with Publications, Prizes and Popularity!

Paula Harrison
@P_Harrison99

This week we celebrate Paula Harrison going from strength to strength, Linda Lawlor coming top of the class, Paul Morton hitting download success and Mike Brownlow winning a surprise prize!

Paula Harrison, who lives with her husband and children in Buckinghamshire, wanted to be a writer from a young age but spent many happy years being a primary school teacher, gazing at cloud shapes and listening to snippets of other peoples conversations. Nosy Crow publish Paula’s The Rescue Princesses series - book six, The Magic Rings, was released in March and book seven is due out in May. In addition to this amazing success, Paula has sold a second series to Nosy Crow, Faerie Tribes for older readers. This brand new series launches in May. In between packing her family into the car to find a sandy beach where she can paddle in the waves, Paula clearly is finding plenty of time to write. Fantastic news Paula – well done!

Linda Lawlor

Linda Lawlor is celebrating a first prize win in the Writers' Advice Centre story competition for the first chapter of a book with a connection to the Olympics. Her entry was a humorous adventure for 8 – 12 year-olds about a boy who tries to get himself out of trouble by kidnapping the Olympic Flame. Linda gave up teaching to write a couple of years ago, and has written a couple of fantasies for readers aged 8-12 and 12-14. . Linda reviews for  Bookbag and is busy with a new book about a girl detective. Her two favourite questions are "What if?" and "Would you like some more chocolate?" An excellent base from which to launch a writing career I’d say. 

Paul Morton
@paulhotfrog

Conference attendees will well know writer and illustrator Paul Morton's work, his badge designs are always among the best in our annual competition. Paul also produces picture book aps. Ga Gunk and Beeble and Blink have sold around 1000 copies. Due to the marvellous reporting ability of technology Paul knows his stories have actually been read a total of 11,046 times – not a bad return rate!

Mike Brownlow
@mikebrownlow1

Mike Brownlow, writer and illustrator of Little Robots which was turned into an animated TV series, has several books coming out this year with Orchard, OUP and Piccadilly Press. This week, however, Mike is celebrating winning his very first engraved pewter plate. To be specific, The Highlights High Five 2012 Pewter Plate Award for best cover of the year. Highlights is the longest running and most prestigious magazine for children in the USA. It's been going for over 60 years and has sold over a billion copies since it started. Mike’s delighted with his unexpected win saying ‘I’ve never won a pewter plate before.’ It’s good to know even the most established writers amongst us still get a thrill from celebrating a success. 

 Well done all of you, your achievements inspire us all. A pewter plate would look perfect above my desk…

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Kathy Evans is Celebrations Editor for Words & Pictures. She is South East Network Coordinator with Mariam Vossough and is represented by Sophie Hicks at Ed Victor.