Can I tell you a story? This day 149 years ago, a chimney sweep ‘climbing boy’ got stuck inside a chimney. His death was a catalyst for change, and marked a shift in attitudes towards child labour. He was important, but forgotten. His name was George Brewster.
#TheLastBoy
🧵1/4
Found a drop of teal 🩵 Considered the 6th rarest seaglass colour and quite likely belonged to an ink bottle from the late 1800s. A little message from the universe to dip my pen and keep writing 🙌
Today, I found purple* sea-glass. That is all.
* Practically non-existent, stuff of pipe-dreams, mythical even** and over 100 years old (according to people who know stuff).
** ok I have a tendency to exaggerate when giddy, but
p u r p l e !
1 year ago today, Magpie the crow flew out of my heart and into bookshops! It’s been a brilliant year 🤗 To celebrate, like & retweet for a chance to
#WIN
a signed copy of
#Elsetime
& a Treasure Chain talisman of mudlarked treasures for good luck 💛 Ends 24/9 UK & Ire
#GIVEAWAY
🌰📚🌰 GIVE-AWAY! 🌰📚🌰
It’s
#WorldBookDay
Week! Would you like to
#Win
a signed copy of The Chestnut Roaster (9+), a set of bookmarks, postcard & limited edition poster?
RT & follow for a chance to win! Winner 6th Mar, UK & Ireland. GOOD LUCK! 💫🎉📚
#Giveaway
@EveryWithWords
“Put tinfoil on the kitchen counter to stop your cat jumping up,” they said.
Covered the entire counter - she positively bathed in it. Tried a smaller bit, it failed. The bits are getting smaller & she now jumps up specially to sit on HER bit of tinfoil. Every darned time 😼😁
📚✨ We're thrilled to unveil the nominees for the
#YotoCarnegies24
. These incredible authors & illustrators are making waves in the world of books for children and young people.
How many of the 129 nominated books have you read? 📖❤️
Explore the lists:
Wrapping nine for a nine year old - her first foray into
#MG
books, and I’ve picked some of my absolute favourites. Oh the places she will go, the *nine* lives she will live! 💫✨
@silverpebble
I adore your photos and drawings, Emma, and I’m so sorry you are suffering right now. Sending you a photo of my pebble collection, many of which found while searching for happiness 🧡
To all the AMAZING authors out there recording quick* videos and those lucky enough to FINALLY get to meet young readers in person, may your words flow and your heart burst with joy this
#WorldBookDay
*no such thing, give us strength 😅
#Bloopers
🤪
7 yo discovered my copy of
#TheLostWords
by
@RobGMacfarlane
&
@JackieMorrisArt
. She caressed the pictures with her fingertips, told them she loved them and instinctively broke into song as she read the words. Magic!
🎄ONLY 14 MORE SLEEPS🎄 so it’s time for an
#Elsetime
GIVEAWAY! 💫🥳
Like & Retweet - one lucky duck will win a signed copy of Elsetime & an Elsetime poster pack! Ends
midnight Mon 14 Dec, UK & Ireland. As Needle in Elsetime would do, I’m sprinkling good fortune from above!🤞
I WROTE A STORY! 💫🤗
It's about a girl called Piaf. Her name means ‘little sparrow’, and when she was born, she was wrapped in a handkerchief and placed in a drawer. No-one as small as a bird could survive. But she did. Little Piaf has a power – a superpower, even…
I’ve pinched myself and it’s real: Thrilled and SO grateful to
@artscouncil_ie
for awarding me a Literature Bursary Award so I can work on my next children’s book! 🙏 Their financial support and encouragement is simply priceless! 💫💛
H🌰🌰RAY! THE CHESTNUTS ARE FULLY ROASTED!!
It's the official publication day of
#TheChestnutRoaster
! 💫🎉
We ate all the macarons earlier this month in
@HalfwayUpBooks
🇮🇪 and today we get to celebrate again with a fun bookshop tour of LONDON! 🇬🇧 (1/3)
Celebrating
#TheChestnutRoaster
already going to reprint (😃 omg!) a few short weeks after publication day with a snapshot of the joy I’ve had working with booksellers, librarians, teachers, reviewers & young readers. MERCI - I’m SO grateful to you all! 🤗🙏
@EveryWithWords
1/2
Omg! I DID IT! I finally wrote ‘The End’. Book 3 was already written in the stars, but I felt I had to write it down on paper. It truly stole my heart 🧡😭💫
I made a wish and it came true! 💫🥳
Beyond excited to announce that I am now represented by Faith O’Grady of the
@LisaRichardsLtd
Agency. Writing for children is the best job in the world and I’m so happy to have the wise and wonderful Faith by my side
It’s the anniversary of my mum’s passing - each year, when we meet up to mark the day, she brings wild, unexpected weather, just to let us know she knows. This was today 🧡
JOY! I accepted an offer of representation from the superb
@josephine_hayes
@TBP_agency
. When it happened, I was dumbstruck & ran from their offices to a tiny park down the road where I sat under a tree. At my foot, I found a feather (mum?) & gold ring (as my MC does). MAGICAL💫
It’s the
#BookElves2022
grand finale today & the elves are celebrating all the brilliant
#IrishBooks
we are so lucky to have! I hope you found a book or two from the fab recommendations over the past week. All the candy canes go to Queen Elf,
@sarahwebbishere
🧡
#ChooseBookshops
Wishers & believers, this time every year our planet passes through a ring of dust left by a comet that orbits our sun every 33 yrs. Sometimes it brings a meteor shower, sometimes a storm. In 1833, the night sky was more white than black with 100,000 shooting stars each hour🧵1/2
My author copies arrived! I am ECSTATIC!!
@hollydrawsinink
has done it again - I adore the cover! That gold! 🤩 Ewa Beniak-Haremska’s internal illustrations - *swoon*. Thank you,
@EveryWithWords
, for creating something so beautiful for my story 🧡 OUT OCTOBER! 🙏
@artscouncil_ie
ARE WE THERE YET?! ARE WE THERE YET?! 🤣 Only 3 more sleeps to go before
#ELSETIME
is published!!! Like Glory Bobbin in the story, I am feeling a *little* impatient, so here are a few fun facts about Elsetime while we wait! 😊 1/7
I celebrated
#TheChestnutRoaster
being picked as the Times Children’s Book of The Week (🤗😭) with a mini
#Dublin
bookshop tour! First stop was
@DubrayBooks
Grafton St. Great chats & the warmest of welcomes - thank you, Emer! I signed some books & worked up an appetite… 😄 (1/2)
TODAY’S VIEW THROUGH THE KITCHEN WINDOW WHILE THE KETTLE BOILS (and you betcha I’m shouting - look at this beauty!!!!) Great Spotted Woodpecker!
@IrishBirds
@BirdWatchIE
@Irishwildlife
🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
On this night, 95yrs ago, The Great Flood of London happened. 14 souls lost their lives when snowmelt water met with a ferocious storm surge by the
@Tate
. Little was written about it, so I wrote
#Elsetime
. Read more here:
#London
#History
@EveryWithWords
COVER REVEAL: How gorgeous is this? The cover for
@Eve_Mc_Donnell
The Last Boy. Gorgeous art by
@hollydrawsinink
. Inspired by the story of George Brewster, whose tragic death led to a change in labour law. Check out the trailer. (pub Sept) EXCITING!!
😃 SOMEONE PINCH ME! 😃
I am SO excited that
@EveryWithWords
will be publishing my middle-grade story
#Elsetime
in 2020! Finding my treasure of an Agent,
@josephine_hayes
@TBP_agency
, and the thrill of hearing Mikka’s perfect vision for Elsetime were magical moments for me 💫
The Nut Fairy was late home and there were three Hungry Badgers waiting for her on the decking (Mr & Mrs Lumpy and Little Humbug).
A bit of grape lobbing, a bit of being a Badger Bouncer 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾❤️
Some years, Mother Nature lets chestnuts fall earlier than planned! 😃🌰
#TheChestnutRoaster
is already dropping in bookshops! It’s the 1st of October today, so I hope friends in Ireland will come celebrate its launch at
@HalfwayUpBooks
in Greystones 🎉 The best part is…(1/4)
It’s
#BastilleDay
, a day of national joy celebrating all we love about France. Little Piaf in
#TheChestnutRoaster
had the longest queues at her roaster each 14 July so, to celebrate,
#WIN
a chestnut made by me with clay, acrylic & amour 💙🤍❤️ RT & follow by 18th.
@EveryWithWords
Congratulations, the winner of my
#ORFEIA
print is
@Eve_Mc_Donnell
, please DM me so I arrange postage to you. I will be giving away another print at the end of Sept so keep watching and keep following❤️❤️
💛💛WIN!💛💛
#Elsetime
was inspired by The Great Flood of London on the night of 6th Jan, 1928. I wrote about it here:
To mark its anniversary, win a signed copy of Elsetime - please retweet & follow to enter! Uk & Ireland by Sun 10th Jan. Good luck! 🤗
BOOK LAUNCH NEWS! I’d love to celebrate
#TheChestnutRoaster
with you! 🧡 There’ll be MACARONS! MARSHMALLOWS!! And FIZZYPOP!!! All squished into
@HalfwayUpBooks
in gorgeous
#Greystones
🇮🇪🌰🥳
Psst, share this with your book-y friends & the raspberry macarons are yours 😋
I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am for this opportunity - it’s going to make an enormous difference to me, not to mention my WIP. So excited to meet everyone and soak up the creativity that oozes from the walls of
@TyroneGuthrie
! Thank you so much,
@KidsBooksIrel
🙏
HEY! Have you ever found something – a shard of pottery or rusty spoon, perhaps – and wish you could hear its story? How old is it? Is it lost, or was it thrown away? Did it witness something peculiar? Or did it sit idle on a shelf, soaking up secrets?
#ElsetimeStory
1/5
🐳 AHOY aspiring children’s writers! Does your story idea have a thimble-full of fantasy or does it bring readers to curious worlds? 💫 I’d love you to join me at
#WonderFest2021
on 21 Nov for tips on writing fantasy & time-travel novels
#writingcommmunity
GERMAN FRIENDS! 🇩🇪
Die Brücke nach Morgen (The Bridge to Tomorrow, aka
#Elsetime
), translated by brilliant
@fancydancer153
🤗💛, is out June 3rd. Cover art by Alexandra Helm. I can’t wait for you to time-travel with Needle & Glory and their very clever crow!
@Edelkidsbooks
Set your alarm before you feast your eyes on this because I promise you will get lost in its bluebells, soft petals and butterfly wings 💫 It now hangs above my desk (that’s the end of me getting any work done!) SWOON! Thank you,
@BHHillustration
💛💛💛
@Joannechocolat
#Orfeia
My desk for the week. I’d heard so much about the
@TyroneGuthrie
centre that I’d created a vivid image of it in my mind but NOTHING prepared me for two things - its magic (I swear I can touch it) and the warmest welcome ever💫 Going to make some magic of my own
@KidsBooksIrel
, 🙏
🛎DING! DING! DING!🛎
ELSETIME Cover Reveal Time!!
Crazy-happy to reveal the cover of my debut MG
#Elsetime
! Cover design & internal illustrations by the mega-talented
@hollyoven
💫🙌
Can’t wait for you to meet Needle, Glory & Magpie the crow!
Out 18th June by
@EveryWithWords
The AMAZING
@hollydrawsinink
won two(!!) prestigious
@ABCoverD
Academy of British Cover Design Awards last night, including the Children’s 6-12 category with the phenomenal cover of
#TheChestnutRoaster
. 🎉🤩 I am in awe of every cover she creates - huge
congrats, dear Holly! 🤗
CLINK CLINK CLINK! IT'S
#ELSETIME
!
If you could close your eyes for a minute & imagine we are all tiddly at Elsetime’s book launch! That’s me you can see, standing at the podium, all wobbly with nerves, & it looks like I’d like to say a few words (I’ll be quick, promise! 🤣) 1/7
Fresh from Tyger being crowned our Children's Book of the Year 2022, we asked
@whatSFSaid
to tell us more about what brought his latest
@DFB_storyhouse
masterpiece into being (plus book recommendations). Read the whole article:
My
#wisteria
has reached its teenage years - Mid-fade-long-fringe hair, only comes out once a year, and will soon leave all its bits on the floor for mammy to pick up. Love it 😍
Hooray! 🤩 So thrilled
#Elsetime
has been shortlisted for the Cumbria
#Spellbinding2021
Book Award alongside some cracking reads! Happy reading everyone! 💛
Sooo..only a week to go until schools go back and what better way to celebrate than with the launch of our KS3 Spellbinding Book Award. Congrats to all our shortlisted authors - let the reading begin! 📚😊🎉
#spellbinding2021
#bookaward
#cumbria
The crew in
@wexlibraries
#Gorey
are full-on, top-notch champions of
#DiscoverIrishKidsBooks
- check out their display of homegrown children’s books in their library. If your young reader is looking for the next best read, they’ll guide you! Bravo, Gorey Library!
@IrishKidsBooks
🥁 Drum roll please! We are so excited to announce the shortlist for the very first The Week Junior Book Awards! We hope you'll join us in celebrating the talent, creativity, care and sheer passion of the publishers, authors and illustrators who are on it!
SOME NEWS!
@EveryWithWords
wisely moved
#Elsetime
’s publication date to 17 Sept 2020!
Of course, we can only hope that our world is free by then, and WHAT A PARTY WE SHALL HAVE! In the meantime, I guess all we can do is go with the flow... Stay well x
It’s
#IrishAstronomyWeek
! Brewster in
#TheLastBoy
is gifted with numbers & uses them to predict the 1866 Great Meteor Storm. Why? So he can wish on every star to be last climbing boy sweep ever. Wishes are the tiny seeds of HUGE change, so look to the stars this week & WISH! 1/2
The driving seat for a host of online events over the coming days for
#ChildrensBookFestival
month in Ireland 🇮🇪 Lights, camera, butterflies-of-excitement, action! 💫
It has just arrived in the post and OMG I CANNOT BRING MYSELF TO OPEN IT!!!! The anticipation is beyond delicious so I want to hold on for a little while longer*.
#BeWild
by
@Hopewrites
&
@DanielEgneus
💛💛💛
@KidsBloomsbury
*that’s long enough. Going in!!!
I spent the weekend in Roman Londinium, following Vita’s journey from riches to rags as she fights to survive Gladiator school & the toughest trials of her life. Brilliant children’s historical fiction! Can still hear the clang of swords & roars of spectators! Bravo,
@allysherick
I’ve been bed-bound for a few days but oh, the places I have been, the things I have seen. This story is epic, it’s powerful and harrowing and infinitely beautiful. There’s no way a mere mortal created it, but then again I’m not sure
@whatSFSaid
is a mere mortal 🤗🔥🐯🧡
I’m not sure these two have stopped smiling since their recent wins at the
@AnPostIBAS
Awards. I popped in for a smile too and to sprinkle some Christmas joy on
@Conor_Merriman
’s fab window art.
@HalfwayUpBooks
- Bookshop of the Year 🎉 What a happy place to be!