Friday 18 April 2014

Watch out agents, here comes Petronella!

March was a bit of a write off as far as any editing and writing went. I've noticed that in times of stress I seem to write more lists, let's just say March consisted of a lot of lists! They serve their purpose though, they provide a focus, they are therapeutic, there is a feeling of euphoria as you cross something off a list :)

From mid February onwards we had a bit of an emotional rollercoaster in the Finlayson-Palmer household. Both sad and happy events have come and gone, death of a friend, birthdays of nearest and dearest. Sandwiched between these life changing events have been tummy bugs (far more than our fair hare in such a short space of time!), Dyslexia finally diagnosed with 3rd finlayson-Palmer (second so far, sure there's a third to come, not to mention Mommy Finlayson-Palmer, sure I am but never confirmed), littlest Finlayson-Palmer starting swimming lessons, second Finlayson-Palmer's 9th birthday party postponed due to torrents of vomit, break down of washing machine during said outbreak when we needed it most. Did end up with a lovely new sleek, ninja style black washing machine to match the oven and fridge (if sleek or ninja style could ever be applied to an appliance that makes such a racket!). Removal of the old one also caused flooding to the kitchen, nothing ever runs smoothly in our household, even the simplest of tasks results in some form of chaos! Two laptops and the main house computer all died during March when I was so close to completing the third draft of Petronella, just adding insult to injury!

At least amidst all of this my children managed to keep me going with their antics. They are a constant source of joy, stress, and inspiration :) It has been a pleasure to see my second son enjoy reading as much as he is from anime and Zelda books to Beast Quest (Thank you Adam Blade, whoever you really are!) especially when my eldest (also Dyslexic) is being very teenagery and resisting reading unless it is about squids or armies! I just hope all of my littlies grow up to realise just how fantastic a book is, how you can escape into any world, and be anyone you want to be in a book :)

After six months toil on Petronella Beetletwitch and the Water Pistol Bandit, and with help from friends with proof reading and editing, it is finally finished and ready to present to agents. Just hope it's as well received now as it was at Discovery Day 2 at Foyles last November. But with characters such as Bob the Ninja teddy bear coming their way, and the comical, bungling bandit Victor I don;t see how they couldn't enjoy it landing in their inbox! Watch out agents, here comes the first Petronella Beetletwitch book!

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