What sweet children Madi and Josh are and how cross their mum must have been when they wrote on the whiteboard with permanent marker. Another charity shop find I managed to resist.

I don’t want to be overly critical but.... a typewriter in a field of poppies is possibly not the most efficient way to get a book written in a hurry.

Anyone can write a kids story every day for a year. The real art lies in working on one manuscript until it’s as perfect as possible - even if that takes a full year.

Clever idea by my ex student Kathy Giannoulis. Designing a cover is one area that many self publishing writers struggle with.

You like owls? They’re like cats, the way they sit there, aloof on the roof. Not like dogs at all. Dogs are hadedas. This owl sits on the neighbour’s roof at dusk sometimes. I feel very honored when he appears. Definitely not dog-like. ... See more

Read about my US publisher, Jessica Powers and why she loves South Africa so much.

It’s all fun and games until he gets his wife pregnant again...

About 25 years ago Daan Samuels, who painted this picture, gave it to my husband Luke as a gift. Luke was his parish priest, and we lived in a West Coast village called Laaiplek.
Mr Samuels drove the dredger than worked the small harbours that dot St Helena Bay.
According to his colleagues Mr Samuels was not very good at dredging as his head was always full of his ‘dingertjies’ (art works).
He gave this to Luke because he said it showed the fishing trawlers during a storm, and because as a priest Luke had to weather many of life’s storms.
Luke died ten years ago this month, and the painting has sort of hung around since then.
I think I will get it properly framed and hang it now. There is something wonderfully stormy about it. ... See more

This is such important step by step information on communicating with young children. Just as important to writers of children's books as to people writing TV scripts.

So exciting