Thursday August 7th 2025

Dear Diary,

After spending a fabulous morning at Birchfield Library, I made the short drive to Tower Hill Library for my afternoon event. It was lovely to encounter more children eager to get stuck into some activities… including Keyaan and Parisa who’d come straight from attending my morning session! And I had a super couple of hours with everyone who attended.

After a quick re-shuffle of some furniture in order to set up in my new surroundings, I began by reading a snippet from WARNING: Magic Can Be Dangerous!. Then it was out with the worksheets and time to get creative!!!

There were some talented artists in amongst this group as well as some aspiring authors. And some of the titles that were dreamt up today really tickled me! We had stories and comic strips entitled The Football-Stealing Monster, The Clay Monster, Top-Secret Time, and The Chocolate Who Saved Himself from Getting Eaten, to name but a few!

But of all the work produced, I particularly loved Cali’s stunning book cover and a super story plan for Ekina and the Guardians of the Universe. It was about a bunny called Gubby who eats EVERYTHING – even the bleach in the janitor’s cupboard! EEK!!! Here’s the blurb:

Ever wondered why your library book went missing? Ever wondered why the monster under the bed took your chocolate eggs? It’s all in a submarine in space, with a bunny called Gubby…

With this session being a little quieter than my morning session at Birchfield Library, I had time to pick the brains of all the attendees as to what stories they’d like me to write next. And it definitely seems as though a warning about teachers or parents is top of the list! It was lovely to explore future plots with the youngsters in this group, and they gave me lots of ideas to play around with. Now I just need things to slow down a little so I can find some more time to write!!!

I had a super afternoon at Tower Hill Library and hope to return next year once WARNING: Grandma’s Gone Bonkers has been published.