So You Want To Be A Writer, my top-rating podcast with the wonderful Valerie Khoo, is celebrating 300 episodes this week and we have this Great Big Book Pack to give away as a party favour! Yes, that's 30 BOOKS FOR ONE WINNER. Books for kids, books for adults,...
In case you missed it, the latest round of #writeabookwithal is over and I have finished the first draft of my latest manuscript. It is, brace yourselves, the 15th first draft fiction manuscript that I have written. Fifteenth. Four were written before my first...
There would be few parents who haven't, over the past few years, heard the term 'growth mindset'. It's one of those phrases that seems to have blasted its way across the internet like a tumbleweed, gathering pace and size as it moves, leaving an entire library of 'how...
You might need a cup of tea for this one... August has been a crazy-busy month, featuring planes, trains and automobiles, Book Week, the MS Readathon, the first Your Kid's Next Read Live event, and media appearances on television, radio and in print. Add to that the...
“Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.” Anne Lamott’s quote has always resonated with me for two reasons. One is that you don’t really know how to write a book until you get in there and write one. The second is that sometimes you...
I confess the heading for this post may be misleading – this month, it's mostly about the news! News Writers love writers' festivals. We love them. They're busy and tiring and a little bit crazy for someone like me, who spends most of her time alone with her computer...
Last week I found myself compiling a list of books about writing for a young writer I know. She's 15, enthusiastic, stymied by the parameters of writing for school assignments, hungry for information, encouragement and advice. I tried to give her book suggestions that...
One of the joys of the Your Kid's Next Read Facebook group is the opportunity to 'meet' other children's authors. Occasionally, I like to put a spotlight on one of those authors and so it is with pleasure that I welcome Dave Leys to the blog. Dave is the author of The...
![News, reviews + interviews [June]](https://allisontait.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ala-review-the-book-of-secrets.png)
I used to blog every day. Can you believe that? I can't. I find it particularly difficult to imagine in months like this, where weeks fly by like hours and I pop in here to write something and realise it's been a month since I've shown my face. But I digress. This...
