Scarecrows and other stories

A lovely break away was made even more special when I discovered that not only was this year's Newburgh scarecrow festival theme 'books', but I'd also get the chance to see some of the fantastic competition entries while there.

Many of the entries were characters from children's books, brilliantly recreated by some of the local children, as well as older groups, businesses and residents.

We had fun finding the scarecrows and guessing the characters.  The creativity behind each character was amazing. Paddington was a special favourite, complete with his furry legs and marmalade sandwich.

Julia Donaldson's books are clearly loved in the town -  The Smeds and the Smoos, The Gruffalo, The Singing Mermaid and The Scarecrows' Wedding were all wonderfully represented.

My favourite was the gorgeous The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which very deservedly was one of the prize winners.

Altogether it was another brilliant way to bring books alive for all ages.

A week of anthology news

What a week! Amidst submitting work to anthologies, I received some really good news on previous submissions and my work being included in several forthcoming anthologies. 

I'm delighted to see that The Dirigible Balloon will be publishing a third anthology of poetry for children, and I'm deeply honoured to have a poem selected, particularly when I see the list of poets selected. Having had a poem selected for inclusion in the second anthology too, I'm very excited to watch this one progress. Thanks to Jonathan Humble for all the work he does on this fantastic poetry resource. 

You can read more about this here:

https://northernjim.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/this-is-your-captain-speaking/

I also heard that I've had two poems selected for a separate anthology - more news on that in due course.

The biggest and most exciting news I received was that my story 'Pineepple Delicht' won the Open Story category in the Federation of Writers (Scotland) annual writing competition and as a result will also be published in a special anthology celebrating their twentieth anniversary. I can't wait to read all the other winning entries.

Books, books and more books

It's been a lovely weekend enjoying events at this year's Belfast Book festival. With another great line up this year, I was lucky to secure tickets to some of the more popular events.

Yesterday it was inspiring to hear Ronan Hession and Louise Nealon talk about their writing processes and their most recent novels.

This afternoon at the YA showcase event, Jenny Ireland and Kelly McCaughrain launched their new novels. Chaired by Shirley McMillan, the panel also featured Sue Divin and Stephen Daly. All four local writers have new novels out this year, which is a huge inspiration for other local kidlit writers.

And of course, like any good book festival, I came away with a bundle of new books, leaflets and goody bags.

Along with this haul, what made this weekend special were all the bookish conversations that took place. Whether it was writing friends who I bumped into unexpectedly in the cafe, writing friends who were volunteering at the festival, chats with friendly bibliophile strangers, or the supportive encouragement from writing pals who I'd arranged to meet there, they all contributed to a lovely book-filled weekend.