I have things to say ...

I am trying to internet less and be bored more. My mother always told me it was good to be bored. The jury is still out after sixty years and that is the longest debate I have ever had. I have a sneaking suspicion Mum was right and therein lies my pre-teen style resistance.

Anyways, I have been thinking (because I have been interneting less), and it occured to me that as a children's author I am often required to talk on the joy and/or benefits of reading, and the mechanics of writing. I have some good content on those two subjects but I yearn to just sit and yak about why I write the things I write, like authors of books for grown ups get to do. Imagine having a debate on stage with someone who has read and appreciated your work, in front of an adult audience who are curious about how your mind arrived at the stories you tell. I don't want to just give you that content without the cosy armchair and the hot stage spotlight. I'm not sure I can. I want the questions that I am not thinking to ask myself. I want to be surprised and excited about what an interviewer might tease out of my brain. A festival organiser might tell you that the content of children's books are not sexy to an adult audience but those book loving adult minds were built on children's literature. Scratch them and they bleed nostalgia for the books they grew up on. I can never understand how an adult who will name a childhood read as a lifelong favourite will assume a current children's book is superficial with nothing to offer. I have made grown people cry with the content of my stories for young people. I work hard to load them with technique and plant little word grenades that explode with rewards for readers. I am sincere when I talk about how wonderful reading is and good ways for new writers to construct their own stories, but there are corners of my brain that will remain unexplored - I guess you might glimpse them if you read my books. But you will never really know what you have missed. 

What I am reading at the moment. 

I am not finished yet but this is like a ten star read. I cannot recommend it enough.

and also this which is terrifying and hugely important ...