A whole year after I signed my first children’s publishing contract. A whole year! Mostly one of the best years of my life but a tiny part of it was also the worst. But we don’t want to talk about that because on the flip side, it’s brought our little family closer together than ever and has been firmly scraped off our shoes. So the year is ending on a high…Win!

I’ve seen my youngest start school, my oldest develop a bit of a furry top lip (my oldest is a boy, don’t panic) and Madrid with the Mister…That’s about all I’ve had time for in between all the fabulous things I’ve been working on this year which I can tell you all about over a nice cup of English Breakfast tea. And perhaps a scone (rhymes with ‘one’ for those that keep saying it wrong, just so we’re all on the same page).

The fantastic clients I’ve worked with this year are Kyowon, ACEME, Caterpillar Books, Blue Apple Books, Blue Rabbit, Parragon Publishing, CJ Education and Top That Publishing. I’ve also licensed illustrations with Ombudsman Services and Seller Publishing and had the most fantastic time with Neston Sixth Form for the day. I’ve loved every single second! In the past two weeks I’ve received an actual copy of my first book as author/illustrator (1st proof) and a contract for my second from the beautiful people at Caterpillar Books.

Thanks to Vicki, Lauren, Gemma, Lucie, Kirsten, Seonghae, James, Grace, Lulu, Emily, Hannah and Therese for all of their help this year – Bright, you really have been amazing! (One had to say amazing at least once during this post, being from Liverpool and all).

So here are some pics for your eyes…These are mostly just snippets and sneak peeks but I’ll post more as soon as I’m allowed!