suppose the good thing about being a rubbish diary keeper is that at least by the time I do get round to writing an entry, I have something to say! My teen book is well on its way to being produced now. The editor thought I had done a great job on the re-writes although my working title of 'Consequences' didn't grab them so it will be called 'Accidental Friends' instead. The rough cover has been designed by Julia Nielsen. She is also re-designing the covers for 'Never Ever' and 'Getting Rid of Karenna' so that all three of my teen titles will have a distinctive look.

Julia's style is quite funky and retro so I'm hoping they'll be eye-catching on the shelves. I'll post the new covers up as soon as the finishing touches have been made.

I have also finished the copy-editing. Copy-editing comes after the first round of heavy editing where the whole structure, storyline and characterisation of the book is analysed. A copy editor checks for the nitty-gritty mistakes, such as factual and historical inaccuracies, incorrect use of vocabulary and so on. I had nineteen points to look at, which isn't bad considering the book is so long. Point one was whether I could have something 'slightly adjacent.' Apparently you are either adjacent or not. You see, it's true – you do learn something new every day!

The publication date for Accidental Friends is February 2008.

So what does a writer do once she has finished a book? Starts a new one, of course. In between school visits, book events and workshops, that is. I'm sorry to say my carbon footprint will not be a small one; I have been pounding up and down those motorways in my Ford Focus all year. So far I have visited:

London – Hounslow Manor with their ace librarian Aneesa Akhtar. Hounslow Manor has students from something like forty-three different nationalities attending. Amazing!

The next day I spent the morning with the pupils of St Richard's with St Andrew's in Ham.

A week after I ran two creative writing workshops for Year Sixes at Barkston and Syston School in Lincolnshire followed a few days after that by a trip to Somerset where I spent the day with KS2 at Kingsbury Episcopi. I ended February with a return visit to South Parade Primary in Ossett.

March kicked off with World Book Day at Brock's Hill in Leicester then it was over to sunny North Wales.

Conwy Library Services asked me to help launch their 'Read a Million Words' event. Wales always seems to do something different to promote children's literature. The Read a Million Words scheme is run by the Basic Skills Agency and is aimed at encouraging reading. Children become 'word millionaires.' Hearing an authors speak, for example, was worth 30,000 words.

ater on in March I visited Hadden High in Nottingham and bumped in to 'Potty Poet' Chris White who was also booked in for the day. If there are any teachers reading this who are looking for a poet to visit their school, Chris is great. I have seen him perform a few times now at the Lincoln Young Peoples Book Award and he is full of life and highly entertaining. His details are available on the Potty Poets website – www.pottypoets.com.

Staying fairly local I had the pleasure of meeting Y5 and Y6 at Caythorpe Primary and Y7s at Branston Community College in Lincoln.

April took me to an enterprising day in Bradford where Y5, 6 and 7s from surrounding schools spent their Easter holidays with a variety of poets and writers. Special mention to the VI formers who looked after me so well at Laisterdyke, including Mariam Iqbal.

My next trip was across the Pennines to Kirkham Grammar School near Blackpool. In mid May I was back in Wales launching Wrexham's Read a Million Words scheme. No Josh Doder this time but I did meet the Mayor of Wrexham, some very friendly councillors and a lot of enthusiastic kids!

Although the travelling is gruelling sometimes, I do enjoy school visits. My take on them is that I might be the only author a child ever gets to meet so I want to make that event a memorable one. I also love it when I receive letters afterwards. I had some fabulous ones from pupils at Kirkham High and even received some before I had left Brock's Hill!

ne of the things I have been doing more and more is running creative writing workshops. Sometimes teachers want their students to have a boost from a 'real' writer. I'm not sure how much ground I can cover in one hour but I try. Recently I ran two creative writing classes as part of the Lincoln Book Festival. I wanted to give children who love writing the opportunity to develop their ideas.

I asked Susan Price (www.susanprice.org.uk) to run them with me. Susan signed her first contract at fifteen and was published at seventeen! She is also a fantasy writer so I thought we'd be a good combo. It really helped having another author with me as it meant one of us could give one-to-one advice while the other worked with the rest of the group but even with two sessions of two and a half hours each we still ran out of time! So hello to Sophie Lauren, Thomas, Nina, Jasmin, Emma, Denise, Connor, Georgia, Hannah, Hannah and Callum!

Other forthcoming events:

• Working with Aimhigher in Lincolnshire to promote reading and writing
• Attending the World Final of the Kids' Book Quiz on July 9 th in Oxford
• Helping to celebrate Oxford University Press's centenary at their party. I'm looking forward to meting up with all the other authors who attend. My original Simone illustrator, Sue Heap, will be there too. Watch out for loads of photos and name-dropping in my next diary!
• Performing at the Shout About Books Festival organised by the wonderful staff at Lancashire library Services. I love Lancashire. It's almost as nice as Yorkshire.
• Love Simone xxx, the bind up of all three Simone books, comes out in July. £5.99. Bargain! Perfect for any Y6 about to start Y7!

hat have I been reading? Well, in April I met up with Nicola Morgan so I bought The Highwayman's Footsteps and thoroughly enjoyed that tale of derring-do based on Alfred Noyes' ballad 'The Highwayman.' Eoin Colfer's 'The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth' and 'The Legend of Spud Murphy' made me realise what a legend Eion Colfer is! He just has the perfect touch for the age group. For teenagers Anthony McGowan's Henry Tumour is a must! Dark, well written and funny.

I was also half way along The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig but I've lost it somewhere! It was great until page 76 is all I can tell you! Oops! Late correction – have just found Dead Fathers Club at the bottom of my gym bag. No wonder I thought I'd lost it – I haven't been to the gym for ages.

I must also mention the fab Teen Titles magazine produced by Edinburgh City Council. Teen Titles is jam-packed with book reviews, written by pupils from a number of Scottish schools (and English, too). The magazine is glossy, highly illustrated and the reviews pack a punch. Every library should subscribe to it. Teen Titles is always looking for book news, views and reviews.

To contribute, write to:

Teen Titles
Room 5.14
City Chambers
Edinburgh
EH1 1YJ

Until next time, my challenge to you is to read a million words and mine is to go to the gym. We'll all feel so much better for it!