Calling all Year Sixes, and Those That Know Them...

Oooh Bank Holidays. They are pesky little things, aren't they. It's marvellous to have a three-day weekend but when Monday is the day you get loads of writing done, taking that day off for weekend-style fun, plays real havoc with the rest of the week's routine.

Weekend garden drinking times.
I can't argue it wasn't fun. 

Ever since last Monday - a day that included a 70th birthday lunch for my Uncle, as well as an evening of sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew banter - I've been playing catch up. I managed to write Monday's chapter on Tuesday, Tuesday's chapter on Wednesday, then editing and blog writing (hello You!) on Thursday. Then Friday I was all over the place again as I packed to go to a writing conference in Warwick. It's been quite the week.

And because it's been a bit mad, I've been remiss in making connections and marketing my book. I usually spend some time every week, signposting libraries, writerly people, and readers to my books - whether they want me to or not. But last week, that's the stuff I didn't have time for. Except, I did without even realising it.


First of all, my cousin's daughter passed a card to me, via my aunt. Keeping up? Brilliant. Well the card was from my second cousin who is about to start High School this week. She wrote to say how much she had enjoyed Leeza McAuliffe Has Something To Say, and referenced the ways in which she identified with Leeza. The thing is, because the character is a Year Six child, dealing with all the trials and tribulations that involves, then there's a whole year group of people out there that may or may not get something from reading the story. I read the card and felt chuffed that my cousin's daughter had got something from what I'd written. And in a way I hadn't particularly envisaged.

An almost Year Sixer!
The ideal time to read.

A day later, my hairdresser was telling me how his child was about to start Year Six. He said the only thing she was worried about were the SATs tests. Quick as a flash - an organic one, not a marketing one - I said she might enjoy my book. I explained that the main protagonist dealt with the SATs tests with a small amount of worry, but a lot of common sense. I said that it might provide some comfort, or at least some acknowledgement that they are a universal hassle for everyone in the same year. And I meant it too. I wasn't trying to sell a book. (OF COURSE I WAS TRYING TO SELL A BOOK, BUT IN KIND AND SUPPORTIVE WAY.) It just felt an appropriate time to read it.

If you find yourself in the middle
of the Indian Ocean, and you've
already read Vanki by Adler
Olsen, give Leeza McAuliffe a go

So this week, I'm making a bold claim. I reckon if you know someone about to begin Year Six, then Leeza McAuliffe Has Something To Say would be an ideal present for them. You could give it as a Back to School sweetener. Or, if you quite rightly recognise that kids don't need coddling with bribes to take part in basic educational conventions, then get a head's start on your Christmas shopping and put it away for them until December. If the Year Six child in your life starts reading it next January, they will be the exact same educational point in time as Leeza's story starts. You KNOW it makes sense.


I should add, just before I shut up for the week, that this also makes a great read for anyone beyond the age of...hmmm, probably eight? In fact, my thirty year old brother finally read it a few weeks ago... on his honeymoon. That's about as off-brand as the book can possibly be. But I still got a text to say it had been a good read. In fact, he's left it in a Mauritian hotel's reading area. If you're passing, look it up.

Have a lovely week, folks.