I must try and speed up my writing output - but that is for another day! In the meantime I have a new book coming out with Little Island. It is called Keepsake. The cover (which cannot be revealed just yet) was designed by the brilliant Olivia Golden, and it is beautiful - all I could have wished for. I have been involved with Little Island since their inception but this is the first time I have worked on a book with them. It was and is a delight to work with Siobhan Parkinson and Gráinne Clear (all those fadas..) a formidable team. Hard when you are close to a book to know how it will be received - but having read it after many months, I like it. It was a scary book for me to write because for the first time I am writing a full length novel for children set in Ireland. I am a blow-in of the first order and have always felt unwilling to write a book set here as it was not as familiar to me as, e.g. South Africa or Zambia. But I have been here for fourteen years now, so I thought I would give it a try. I enjoyed writing it and hope that shows.
As much as I can probably say about it at the moment is that it is an adventure story and there are horses, people and dogs in it along with just little bit of magic to send it on its way. Orla Mackey has written some mighty Teaching Notes for it, as always, and those will be available online when the book is out.
In place of the cover.... courtesy of Orla Mackey
