Merry Christmas Eve Eve!
Although to be honest you could be forgiven for just shutting the door on 2016 & not peeking out at next year until you're quite certain that it's not knocking off any of your favourite Pop stars, Actors or just generally f*****g with your brain. Lets face it, 2016 started badly & never really got off the floor. Indeed, it may be we look back on this year & in some kind of context we might see it as the year we had to have before we all realised we can't just keep going on the same as we always have, that collectively we need to change & agree to change for the better.
On a personal level, I will always hate 2016 for taking David Bowie & not bringing him back in some new guise as the man himself would have undoubtedly done. I've been a Bowie fan since my teen years where I & many of my peers saw ourselves on stage there, lightening striked, thin & white or just generally rebelling as teenagers should do. & whilst struggling with this cruel blow that struck me to my inner teenage core my family & I were dealing with the builder from hell.
Yes, for us the dire black clouds of 2016 started creeping across the horizon way back in Sept 2015 when we undertook to lift our little cottage from single to double height. From then to now has been a painful & frustrating journey, dealing with a builder that considered bullying, bad workmanship & ineptitude to be just what we required. I won't bore you with the details or the many anecdotes I could lay out against this man, however, if you are on the lookout for a Master Builder in Victoria, Australia, I absolutely could NOT recommend Darren Page of Frankston. Right there, is one I would gladly swap for David Bowie or Alan Rickman, if you're listening 2016, it's still not too late to redeem yourself.
Despite all the gloominess that would have been right at home in a Morrissey song, there were some lancing blooms of sunlight. I was most fortunate to work with Claire Saxby, Kimberley Bennett & Random House on Wild Pa. A great romp with a not so old at heart Grandpa & Grandson.
Also the great team at Little Tigger Press, Eleanor Farmer, Kate Warren on Paws McDraw, my U.K. debut picture book. A fine tale if you can bear the cupcakes.
This year also saw me signing with Jodie Hodges at United Agents, U.K & Danielle Smith at Lupine Grove Creative, U.S Looking forward to working with both Jodie & Danielle on some exciting titles coming over the next few years.
I've also been super lucky to have been offered some exciting but for now secret opportunities, which I hope to share more with you as & when I can. & lastly, I'd like to thank all of you for staying with me through this crazy year, before & beyond. I am very lucky to get to do the thing I love doing & it's through your support that we, meaning me & the great, creative, nourishing, wonderful people I work with, get to make the books we make...
So Thank You & Merry Christmas Eve Eve.
