The three things I'm asked most often, here on OfficeMum, and on Facebook and on Instagram, are as follows: 1. Which is the best campsite 2. How do you get into freelance writing and 3. How do you write a book – or: I've written a book, what do I do next. I've answered the ...
I am glum. I have no excuse. No reason to be glum. I mean, yes, it's been raining for 457 days solid now, so that might have something to do with it. This morning, for the first time this week, we could walk to school again. Such joy in that walk. And then back came the ...
Last week I wrote about the books my kids loved this year - 28 recommendations from my kids to yours - so this week I thought I'd post about the books I loved in 2018. There are lots of "best books" newspaper articles and blog posts at the moment, and at first I thought about trying ...
When I was about thirteen, I remember reading Flowers in the Attic and realising pretty quickly that it was a good thing my parents didn't know what it was about. I'd been stopped from reading Judy Blume's Forever a few years ago, and had learned to be more careful about revealing my reading choices. It's ...
Two summers ago, we spent a glorious fortnight in Marina di Venezia, a campsite near Venice that's situated right on the beach. About five days into our holiday, I was lying awake in bed, cranky after a bad night's sleep, and irrationally irritated that everyone else was still snoring (including the four-year old source of my ...
It's struck me many times over the last 18 months that writing books is a little like having a baby (albeit in a non-human-creating, non-life-altering way). The writing is like the pregnancy (only it feels even longer) and the last round of edits are like the final push of childbirth. The end result is of ...
Anyone who knows me in real life will know that I'm not exactly horizontal in the chilled out stakes. I'm somewhere between about 45 and 80 degrees. And depending on the situation (organising a kid's party, organising a barbecue, trying to get out the door when we have a babysitter...) I'm really quite the opposite ...
Once upon a time, back in September, it all seemed very difficult. Not seriously difficult - just everyday stuff. Struggling with three in school for the first time. Struggling with three lunches and three lots of homework and three tired kids. Struggling with a little boy who likes to talk a lot and listen only a ...
One Friday morning last autumn, sitting in a coffee shop, I finished tweaking the first three chapters of a book, attached them to an email, and hit send before I could chicken out. It felt good. Well, for at least thirty seconds until I realised I'd sent it without checking for typos. The next big dilemma was whether or not to ...
This post could also have been called "Pass the Rescue Remedy" or "Christmas is Cancelled" or more practically "I've Signed a Book Deal". At this point I'm more focused on the Rescue Remedy than anything, and still wondering if I'm having a (rather long) dream. A couple of years ago, a very lovely person called Margaret Scott ...