Author: gretayorke

It has been sooooo busy lately I really have had little time to update here.

There’s been reading at schools, attending Christmas Fairs and book fairs, promoting LiterEight’s new book and now…..there’s been the publication of my latest book, The Prickle Picker!! This book is beautifully illustrated once more by Maggie Bolton and I’m so delighted that she like drawing animals!! This is a story of imagination and trickery!

School visits have been great and now next task is to write notes for In The Dark as a school book study! Watch this space!

I’ve also been helping my friend, Mrs Claus, at Dumfries House!

It may seem as if I’m not doing much in the writing sphere but, in my defence, I’m doing lots of thinking! I have decided to produce Work Mats for my children’s novel, In The Dark. This means that teachers can use this book in a book study situation and have all the relevant follow up activities, for most curricular areas, to hand. Watch this space! Then, there’s the new book, The Prickle Picker, which is in the process of being illustrated. I have decided to have a go at creating the front cover myself so we’ll see how this goes. I have the idea, I have sketched it out…I just need the confidence to put paint on the brushes! Once more, watch this space! It’s all very exciting.

The sun has been relentless here in Prestwick! I’m having to water the garden every night and I’m blaming the unusual heat for my lack of writing. My writing juices have all dried up! I may not be writing as such but I’m thinking and tweaking some docs that have been resting, inert for YEARS! I’m also preparing the next book’s illustrations. Maggie Bolton is drawing rough sketches just now. As no one knows what the ‘Prickle Picker’ actually looks like, I’ve asked some local schoolchildren to draw that they think it might look like. I intend to use 3 of these in thought bubbles in the book and hopefully Maggie will take features from them to create her illustration of the creature. I’m hoping the book will be available in September so…..fingers crossed.

I’ve been selling books at the Hospice Family Fun Day and at Holmston Primary School’s Summer Fair. It’s so rewarding when previous customers return for more books and I met a couple of such young readers at these events.

It’s Independent Book Shop Week this week and I’m delighted to be reading ‘How the Pirates Turned the Tide’ at the Book Nook in Stewarton tomorrow.
Jane McCarry, aka ‘Isa’ in Still Game, was happy to pose with Witch Hitch at the Hospice event!

Well, lesson learned! I have re-published my children’s novel, Halloween Quest. as .In the Dark so lets hope this improves sales throughout the year!

I was delighted this month to be awarded 1st place in the Scottish Association of Writers’ Under 7s competition with my latest story, The Prickle Picker. Hopefully, this will be published soon. Halloween Quest, aka In the Dark, was placed 2nd in the ‘Self Published category.

While I was attending the conference, Tartan Witch managed to get herself off to Finland. She was hoping to visit Elbo the Elf but unfortunately he’d decided to visit her so they crossed paths! Anyway, she had a good chat to Santa, danced on the tables in the Ice Hotel, played Ice Chess and had an altogether great time in the snow.

The Pirates are in the process of being re-printed at the moment so it’s all very busy here. i hope you enjoy Tartan Witch’s photos!

Well! What did I know? My usual writing genres are Children’s Picture books and Poetry. I hate to admit it but it was probably down to lockdown that my first children’s novel was completed. I persevered and eventually in October last year the novel was ready. The working title was In The Dark but I wasn’t convinced that this would be an eye-catcher for my target audience, 8-12year olds. In my wisdom I thought that ‘Halloween’ in the title would attract this age group. The story is not about Halloween per se, it merely happens on Halloween night.

The book was published as ‘Halloween Quest’ but what I have only now accepted is the fact that having Halloween in the title is restrictive. Some of my potential customers commented that they would stock the book only near Halloween time.

So, I have decided to re-brand the book as guess what? In The Dark! I needed to edit the original text, have the cover re-designed and supply a new ISBN. It’s all in the printer’s hands now, another lesson learned.