July 25

Thursday the 3rd: BBC Essex invited Carley and I to take part in an interview about our children’s writing competition.

Saturday 5th: We were further invited to take part in an interview with Phoenix radio in Brentwood. This time three of the winning authors, Ella Shaunessy (8 y/o), Isabella Haj-Jabari (11 y/o) and Molly Lawrence (14 y/o) read their work.

Saturday 12th: author event in Braintree. A disappointing day. Carley and I spend 8 months planning and promoting the event, but attendance was pitifully small. To be honest I felt let down by one of the schools, who sent no representatives to listen to one of their own pupils. This, despite the fact that they are now in a book available world-wide and that the book will be deposited in the British library. It appears that this school wasn’t interested in the fact that three of their students are now published authors. However, one of the other schools sent teachers, and quite a few pupils were in attendance to show support.

Sunday 13th: Craft fair in Upminster, a good day in a nice venue.

Saturday 19th: I was at Chelmsford indoor market. Carley was not able to be with me due to family commitments, so I was joined by Chiquita Arnot. An ex-teacher of 35 years whose debut novel ‘There Is No Ef In Phonics’ is a humorous story that includes actual quotes from children.

Tuesday 22nd: Once again we were at the Galleywood Heritage Centre, selling books and chatting to people. There were quite a few other authors there and we made some good connections.

Friday 25th: Carley and I started planning the 2026 children’s writing competition, this time to coincide with world book day on 23rd April 2026

Saturday 26th: Braintree Artisan market. The holiday season is well underway now, so expectations were low, but we still made sales and footfall was better than expected.

We are not doing much in August, so I will be concentrating on my video interviews.

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