Month: November 2011

Book Review: Grub’s Pups

I was very chuffed to be asked to review this book. It’s a delightful picture book that entranced both my four year old son and eighteen month old toddler.

Abi Burlingham has Ruby tell the story of how her dog, Grub is going to be a dad. It’s easy to join in with her excitement through the build up and birth and counting each puppy as it comes out. I really liked though that there was a slightly different angle in that the story focused more on Grub’s reaction to the puppies coming along and I think it will encourage children’s developing empathy.

Emily in particular was very taken with Grub’s Pups and it’s easy to understand why. It’s a lovely story told in an engaging style and I have to say as well, the illustrations are really sweet and gently humourous.

I’ll definitely be getting the first two books, Ruby and Grub and Grub in Love to catch up on Grub’s exploits!

Grub’s Pups is published by Piccadilly Press, and you can buy a copy of Grub’s Pups from here. Have a look at Abi Burlingham’s website or catch her on twitter; she’s a lovely lady to talk to and deserves much success with her books.

Bulletin

Well, well. It’s been a while *guilty look*.

Sometimes life just gets in the way and you need to focus on priorities. Lately I’ve had to deal with some head stuff and make sure I kept myself and my family going which has meant writing and blogging have taken a back seat, as has podcasting though I’ve tried to keep that going. Things seem to be getting better now so I’m throwing myself back in there! So I thought I’d put a bit of a bulletin together, as I know all you fans were wondering what had happened.

*peers out into darkness waiting for applause*

Ok. I’ll get on with it then…

Writing

My work in progress has been put away for a while. I was at a stage where I was putting all the wrong sort of pressure on myself and I wasn’t doing it for fun any more. I’ve since read a book Awaken the Writer Within which helped me start writing and enjoy it again. I’ll be writing a bit more about this in another post as it helped me decide…

NaNoWriMo

…to take the plunge into NaNoWriMo madness again. This time instead of using it as a way to start a long-planned project, I’m totally using it for fun and without any of the pressure of “this has to go somewhere”. I know it seems mad – there’s all the pressure of making the word count, but I’m honestly not worried if I don’t make 50k by November 30th. What matters is what’s already happening – I’m having fun with some characters and situations and remembering why I want to do this. So far I’m not on schedule but  not massively behind and whatever happens, I’m going to be going out of November happier than I went out of October!

Blogging

My last attempt at organising and structuring the blog doesn’t seem to have worked out so I’m back to taking blogging in baby steps. Again, it’s about remembering what the blog is for which is just what it says on the tin – er, sorry, address bar. My Little Notepad, not My Little Online Presence or My Little Guide to the Universe (although, oooh, shiny new idea…) or My Little How Not to Write. It’s about having some online expressive space and not about becoming A Blogger. So there. Oh, and hopefully in the next two months I’ll be getting a beautiful new look designed by my wonderful husband whose design business is really taking off, so in the meantime I’m going to strip it down to a nice, minimal look ready for the new Me.

Podcasting

There was a little hitch, because of the stuff I mentioned above, which meant that interviews haven’t gone out QUITE on my schedule but hopefully that’s all back and running nicely now. There are some great guests to come and some old favourites returning. I have to say, I love doing the interviews way more than I ever expected, and I hope to see it going from strength to strength in the New Year.

That’s all for now folks. Thanks for listening…