Today marks my first ever contribution to a blog that I’ve found both addictive and invaluable for the past few years.  I’ve written a guest post called ‘Guilty Pleasures’ about the influence of 1940s films on the writing of That Burning Summer, for ‘An Awfully Big Blog Adventure – the ramblings of a few scattered authors‘.   

So do go and read that, there, and tell me what you think….and meanwhile, here, I’ll take the opportunity to sing the praises of the world of children’s books.  Ever since I’ve been writing for children/young adults, I’ve been amazed and grateful for the support I’ve had from fellow authors and illustrators.  Maybe every writing world is like this, in its own way, but somehow I suspect not.

I’m tempted to gush at length now, but I’ll resist, and simply say thank you, thank you, thank you all to the rippling circles of writers who have offered encouragement, advice, reassurance, comfort, hope, reflection, humour and much more over the last year. I’ve met them in the flesh and virtually, formally and informally, through my small writing group, through my publisher (Hot Key Books) and my agency (Felicity Bryan Associates) and thanks also to a series of more or less pronounceable acronyms – the ‘other’ SAS (the Society of Scattered Authors – responsible for an Awfully Big Blog Adventure in public, and the children’s writers forum Balaclava in private), SCBWI, the CWIG of SoA, and CWISL. Having committed myself to a profession which perhaps has more dramatic ups and downs than many (or perhaps is simply practised by people with a tendency to dramatise them!) which can one day feel too good to be true, and the next leave you in the depths of despair, getting to know my fellow writers and illustrators has been been one of its most enjoyable and unexpected pleasures.