They’re here! I can finally announce that I’ve written two new books:
Tell me about… Space and Tell me about… Planet Earth!
They will be published in March 2024 by Templar Books and they’re beautifully illustrated by Chorkung. Did I mention I’m excited?
There’s something wonderful about coming back to Earth and Space – I’m sharing something I’ve always been passionate about and making it accessible to young children.
My background is in Earth Science (I did a geophysics degree) and then I did a masters in communicating science – my MSc dissertation was developing and evaluating space educational materials for primary schools. I wrote a rockets show and toured it around schools along with space themed craft workshops. I was also a planetarium presenter back then too – at Tecniquest Science Centre in Cardiff.
Later I went on to write and deliver Space and Earth workshops at Dynamic Earth as Education Officer. That was all a long time ago, before I became an author and screenwriter. But it feels like my past and future are colliding somehow in these books and I like it!
Many months of hard work went into writing these books. I especially want to thank the editor at Templar Books (Rachael Roberts) , the designer (Nathalie), the illustrator (Chorkunn) and my brilliant former agent, Lindsey Fraser at Fraser Ross Associates.
It’s wonderful to open these books and I feel proud of what we’ve achieved in making them work so well for a young reader!
Tell me about… Space and Tell me about… Planet Earth explain university level science to four year olds in a storytelling style narrative.
I love the illustrations from Chorkung, she’s based in Thailand so we’ve never met but I’m a big fan of her work. Here’s a closer look at the gorgeous covers she created:
l’ll write another blog post soon with a peak inside the books but for now, I wanted to let you know they are coming and you can pre order them, from all good bookshops now.
These books are the second two books in the ‘Tell me about’ series. Plants and Human Body are already available in bookshops. They came out last year.
Read about Tell me about… Plants and Tell me about… Human Body on the blog here.
It’s real – you can say to siri or alexa or spotify “Play Feathers by Emily Dodd” and I start singing! I’ve tried it in the car, it actually works. That’s because last week, the album STAGES was officially released on all streaming channels. You can listen to the album here (on apple or spotify or amazon or youtube etc!). The song I wrote is track number 3, feathers.
You can also buy the CD here. I really hope you enjoy listening to it and to the rest of the album. Twelve of us got into a songwriting, production and performance course that ran over 4 months. It was called STAGES, it was wonderful and it was run by Moniack Mhor, Boo Hewerdine and friends – you can read more about it on my blog here.
We had a pre-launch live gig at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness – each of us performed our track live, this is us all taking a group bow at the end:
I also had something super exciting happen – my first air play on Black Dog Radio. The lovely musician Shirley Barr sent the STAGES album to Andy at Blackdog radio ahead of it launching and he only went and played my song! I woke up to messages saying ‘you’re on the radio’, was such a lovely surprise and then I discovered the Saturday morning folk show was broadcast from Belper – the town I was born in!
MY TRACK FEATHERS PLAYED ON THE RADIO!!! (for the first time ever!) 🚀🪶
So my first ever song airplay and the first song to be played on the radio from the STAGES album was broadcast from the town the singer songwriter (me) was born in – all by random co-incidence. Here’s what my song is about:
Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope” is the thing with feathers gifted me a melody and this in turn gave me the words for this song. If we can fly in our dreams we can soar in the here and now. Hope gives us wings – and every wing needs feathers to fly.
Really hope you enjoy Feathers and the album STAGES – if you do please play it lots of times and add it to play lists and heart it and tell friends about it. If you know any music journalists or radio presenters – please pass it on to them! And if you’re a pal of mine and you want to buy some CDs for Christmas presents, I’ve got some copies on the way so get in touch.
UPDATE listen to the STAGES album and track 3 (feathers) here.
Over the last three months, I’ve been part of a writing, production and performance programme for emerging songwriting talent, it’s called Stages. It’s run by Moniak Mhor (Scotland’s National Writing Centre) in partnership with singer-songwriter, musician, producer, tutor and mentor Boo Hewerdine.
Being part of Stages is one of the best things that has ever happened to me – it has changed my life and my future. There’s twelve of us on the course and we’ve got an album launching in November (AN ALBUM!). This is us on the gorgeous album cover, designed by Elly Lucas:
Elly also worked with each of us on a professional photo shoot. That including taking the silhouette shots for the album cover above and each of us had our own personalised shoot. I wanted mine to have a water theme and then it rained during my shoot so we went with it. This is my new ‘I am a music person and I like it’ face:
I have a few more portrait photos too – they will be popping up on my socials sometime soon.
There is a launch gig at Eden Court theatre in Inverness (Scotland) on 28th October where each of us performs one of our original songs. The others are amazing – you need to hear them. I’ll be singing a song I wrote too and there will be a band playing with me and you’re invited! You can get tickets here.
I’ve decided to interview myself about it all – as a way to tell you more! Here we go…
What is your song about?
I’m glad you asked, it’s called ‘Feathers’, here’s my well crafted short song description:
Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope” is the thing with feathers gifted me a melody and this in turn gave me the words for this song. If we can fly in our dreams we can soar in the here and now. Hope gives us wings – and every wing needs feathers to fly.
Boo Hewerdine helped me to write the song description – I actually wrote 660 words to describe my song. It felt like I’d written an inspirational speech by the time I’d finished typing and I was finding it a difficult task indeed, to cut all those the words down to the 50 word limit we’d been asked for.
So I read my 660 words to Boo and he did a wonderful three minutes of scribbling to produce this concise summary of what I was trying to say about how and why I wrote it! We tweaked it a bit together but he should get the credit really for it.
What style of music is it?
‘The sweeter side of the Velvet Underground’, according to Boo. But if you come to the gig, you can find out?
Sounds great, I’ll be there! So what exactly is stages?
This video is really good at explaining what stages is:
In my own words, it’s a whole load of residencies on everything you need to know to make and release music. With mentoring too.
Tell me more, what were the residencies?
The first part of the course was a brilliant five days of songwriting at Moniak Mhor with Boo Hewerdine and Findley Napier. The photo at the top of this post is me performing one of the eight songs I’d written that week at a gig in the hobbit house.
Then we each had a three hour session in the studio Chem 19, to record a track. This is Jamie Savage in the studio – he was great to work with. He’s pointing to the studio room where you record vocals and instruments:
Then there was an image and branding weekend with Elly Lucas and Boo. And online sessions with Emma Pollock from the Delgados (I really love their music) on how to make a record and then a PR session with Innis and Campbell communications. Our last session is a performance residency – and then we perform the same weekend at Eden Court.
How are you feeling about the gig?
I got a vintage dress for it, in Edinburgh. I’m now worrying it’s too much like something a person who lived in a castle in the olden days would wear but it was expensive and it fits really well and it’s not every day you launch an album, so I’m going to wear it! I’m nervous and excited at the same time.
There will be a lot of people watching and you’re singing and performing something you’ve written for the first time in public, that is scary…
Totally! I’m also no sure what I should do with my body – do I just stand there? If I had an instrument I could hide under it, but Boo is a lot better at playing guitar than I am so he’s playing in my band. I’ve also got Beth Porter on Cello and Jamie MacRae on Ukulele. I’m really glad they were all up for playing on my track and being in my band for the live gig too. But their skill means I’m now instrument-less and it feels exposing.
I’m hoping I’ll learn what to do on the performance residency. I’m also hoping other performance related things I’ve done, spoken word gigs, science theatre shows and author events, I’m hoping they will help me to be less nervous. I’m trying to tell myself it will be fine but I know I am going to be EXTREMELY nervous and I may throw up beforehand! Hopefully not onto my vintage dress.
I hope you find a bucket in time. You mentioned Stages has changed your life, can you tell me how, apart from expanding your vintage wardrobe!?
Ha ha, well in lots of ways but mainly it’s helped me to gain confidence because I’ve discovered skills I didn’t know I had and that’s helped me to find a potential future I want too – one I didn’t know could exist for me and one that involves making music!
Wow, that sounds wonderful! I love your enthusiasm…
Thanks, this has been the happiest I’ve felt in ages too. I’ve been in and out of hospital with my back since March and I’ve not been able to play football or walk far or even drive at times but I’ve had this amazing music adventure at a time when physical adventure hasn’t been possible for me. So it’s sort of saved my year in a way. But genuinely, my entire future has changed because of this course.
Sounds like it’s been a tough year – life changing is big too – you mentioned skills you didn’t know you had – what skills were hiding inside of you and how did you discover them on the course?
During and after the first songwriting residency week, some sort of flood of songs got awakened inside of me. Some nights I was audio dumping two songs on my phone, just to stop them going around my head so I could sleep. I was waking up composing songs. I was audio recording songs on my phone while driving on the A87 (hands free). I had a spreadsheet of song ideas and it passed 100.
It started to feel like some sort of internal torture because I found it hard to believe I could be good at this – I was trying to resist writing songs – it seemed pointless when they’d be rubbish and there was no future in it, so I was having a sort of internal battle with myself because it all seemed so unrealistic – that I could be a songwriter. But the songs kept coming so eventually I sort help.
That’s a wise thing to do, for the sake of your sleep!
Totally it was, I asked Boo for help by desperate email. I told him I wasn’t sleeping because I kept writing songs. I told him I needed some feedback that wasn’t people being nice or my own judgement. I told him I wanted him to tell me what was wrong with my songs, so I could improve them but not to fix anything for me – I needed to try to find my own solutions. I said I’d rather write a bunch of rubbish songs and learn loads than carry on writing song after song into the void, with no clue of how to improve. I said I could take it, the constructive feedback. And that I’d only been able to get better at writing books and TV because people told me what was wrong.
What did Boo say?
He arranged to meet me for my next mentoring session and I braced myself for an onslaught of him telling me what I needed to improve.
How did it go?
I played the first new song and Boo played along, he really liked it. Then the next and the same thing happened. Then the next. He suggested using a cappo for one song. An alternative chord for another song. A tempo increase for another. But there was no actual changes. After four songs, he was as surprised as I was.
He explained he did normally give people lots of feedback. He said when I mentioned my spreadsheet of over a hundred song ideas, he thought I’d show up with lots of half written things but these were finished songs and really good. He said some more good stuff that I can’t remember because none of it seemed real. Then he was talking about producing my album and I couldn’t really take in what had happened.
So you discovered you could consistently write good songs, what happened next?
A similarly unrealistic things happened in the studio session at Chem 19. There was a load of excitement when I was studio singing. Boo got me to sing longer notes and be more conversational and I did a few takes but there was talk of me being extraordinary and I was totally baffled. I’m okay at singing but think I sound like a twelve year old – I’ve never been known as the amazing singer, I do not have the voice of an angel. But when I got back into the mixing room and I was told how good I was at singing, I answered with an angry and confused “What do you mean, good?”. I had it all explained to me – I can sing perfectly in pitch and apparently that’s extremely rare. Even most pop stars can’t do that apparently. Again, it didn’t seem real.
So you never knew, did you ever have singing lessons?
No but I’ve started them now, well I’ve had one! But there’s more too – more unbelievable alternate reality stuff happened in the studio that day.
Chem 19 sounds like a magical place, do go on…
Well we didn’t have long to work on my track so after my singing, I heard the different instruments play their parts and I told folk what I wanted to change and how. Specific things like note lengths or style and more general overall stuff like when guitar should come in – and we changed it and we got it all sounding really good together – I loved it.
Then it was lunch and we were driving to the co-op and Boo and Jamie from the studio were talking about me and to me – saying it takes years of working in the studio before people get to that level – how I was razor sharp with hearing and knowing exactly how things needed to change. And that I had the confidence to voice it. They said it didn’t matter that I didn’t have the technical terms to describe things.
I didn’t have the technical terms or words because I didn’t know them – I’d never done it before and I hadn’t realised what I’d been doing was producing. It’s normally what Boo would have done, but he had gone surprisingly quiet at the time.
I thought we were supposed to get our song sounding great so I told everyone what needed changing by singing their instrument parts and describing how it should change. When I found out that wasn’t normal, I got worried I might be coming over as some kind of arsehole – telling everyone what to do – but they explained I hadn’t and it had been surprising but very good.
Brilliant, so what happened after that?
I had a sort of mini melt down where I couldn’t take in any of what had just happened and I couldn’t go back into the studio to watch the others do their tracks. I felt like I needed to run away. It didn’t seem real, my brain didn’t have the neuropathways for what had happened so I had to get away from the studio and do something that felt more normal instead. So I went off to meet a pal for dinner. Later I drew Boo a graph to try to explain why I’d had to leave:
This is really long answer to the original question so I hope it’s not too boring. Now you’ll understand why I needed help summarising my song description from 660 words down to 50!
No it’s facinating, thanks for your honesty. Keep going..
Okay thanks. I’m clearly not secretly talented at writing song descriptions or answering interviews questions!
But there was one more skill I didn’t know I had and that was hearing what needed to change during mixing. Mixing is where the track gets polished up so everything sounds good.
A couple of weeks later, I mixed in person. I was back in the studio and Jamie Savage had already done a mix but I’d found some things I wanted to change – for example one of the times I sang the word word ‘night’, I hadn’t sounded the T at the end – so he took a T sound from another of my vocal recorded versions, where I had and added that in. I learnt loads about the process – Jamie showed me how he was fixing things – he was really generous in explaining what he was doing.
After a while, he got me to sit down between the two giant speakers and listen and write down the time I heard anything wrong and what it was. So I listened all the way through the track and I had twelve things – all really small. We fixed each of them. Then I listened again and had ten more, we fixed them. At this point there was talk of me having the hearing of a bat. For example I heard the start of a guitar cord about to come in on a bit where there wasn’t guitar. Jamie went through each audio track from the instruments one at a time to find the sound I heard was on the ukulele track, the uke microphone had picked up the guitar from when guitar was in at that point in the song.
I have hypersensitive hearing because of having ADHD. It’s quite overwhelming at a times, I can hear through doors and I can hear all the conversations at once in a cafe. Jamie told me I should be a mixer and he explained most people can’t hear the things I can on a song – they can just tell afterwards, when it’s fixed that it sounds better. So again – massive surprise there too.
Sounds like you could also be a spy?
(Emily giggles) I’d be a rubbish spy!
Seriously though, this sounds like it’s been an incredible journey for you – but you seem surprised by so much of it, were you not making music already?
When I applied for a place on Stages it felt like a long shot! I didn’t expect to get in and I didn’t tell people I was applying. You had to send two recordings of songs you had written and a statement about why you wanted to do it.
When I found I’d got a place and a bursary I delighted but mostly, I was shocked and scared. Isobel at Moniak Mhor said there were loads of amazing musicians on the course. I’m not an amazing musician so I didn’t know what I could bring to the course so I told her that I could bake cookies.
I spoke to a friend, Anna-Wendy Stevenson and she told me I had loads of ideas and loads I could bring because of my background in science and she said not to be afraid.
I still felt totally out of my depth when I arrived – most folk who got in were already out there playing music. I felt like a random who had stumbled in off the street. I’m not very good at guitar and I’d also been super nervous about there being an image weekend as part of stages. I don’t look glamorous – I didn’t think I’d fit in.
Were the other people on the course glamorous on arrival?
Turns out no one was. We’re all really different to each other, different ages and different styles of music so I felt at home. It’s such a lovely bunch of people on the course and it’s been wonderful going through the journey with them – I’ve made some life-long friends too.
I’m glad to hear it.So why did you apply to do the course, if this wasn’t already your thing?
I applied because of two things – this time last year a dear friend of mine, Elspeth Murray was heading to a songwriting weekend course with some friends and someone had dropped out. She asked me if I wanted to come along. There were lots of musicians but not many writers. So I said yes and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I loved being around people who were writing music, I wrote three songs and I used one of them as part of my Stages application.
So what about the second song, where did that come from?
I’ve written children’s songs about squirrels to go with a book I wrote , so I used on of those in my application too.
Sorry I interrupted you there, you were telling me the reasons you applied for the course, what’s the second reason?
There was another composing experience I’d had that I’d loved. I made a stop frame animation as part of the Art and Design NC I was studying, on the Ise of North Uist last year. I’d become friends with an amazing woman, Anna-Wendy Stevenson. She’s a world class violinist and she runs the applied music BA for UHI. She’d mentioned wanting to write film music once in passing so I tentatively suggested us working together because I’d made a short annimation that needed music (but I totally understood if she didn’t want to or was too busy).
Amazingly, she was up for it. I sent her the idea tunes I’d written for the otter and for some fish (me pretending to be a violin and flute as what app audio messages). She then did something wonderful – she recorded the tunes I’d sent on proper instruments and told me how I’d written trad tunes and that they were really good so we should use them instead of her writing something new.
We had a couple of evenings together at her house after that – where we put the tunes to the animation and I can see now, I was in a producer role back then – I just didn’t know that’s what I was doing.
It was one of my favourite ever life experiences – she was so talented and I could say – right can you now add this harmony over that with the violin and she did it instantly. So I could invent and sing out tunes that I could never play myself and she could play them back to me and make it sound exactly the way I wanted them to sound. It’s the closest I’ve been to feeling like a Jedi.
I was at the piano finding a segway tune so we could switch between two keys from the otter to the fish (because the otter starts making a fish picture on the beach out of shells, but the otter and the fish tunes were in different keys). So I found it and then she instantly played it back to me on violin and that made it sound just like an otter creating fish art.
We needed a tune for the raven at the end – I was sat at the piano playing all the notes from the fish to make a chord and then the otter notes in a chord and suddenly, a mournful raven tune sort of appeared out of the piano beneath my fingers and between the two chords and two keys – it was like the raven was in the room and in my blood. And I can hardly even play piano. It felt like magic. After I finished, Anna-Wendy said “Emily that was brilliant, we should have recorded it” But it was okay, I could a remember it!
If you’ve had the joy of music sort of just appearing – you’ll understand this – it’s like the combined creativity in the room enhances you and something beautiful appears that could have never appeared had you been by yourself. I love collaboration.
It sounds wonderful Emily, I’m aware I’ve taken quite a bit of your time so I’ve just got another couple of questions I’d like to ask if that’s okay?
Sure – go ahead!
What’s been the reaction to your new song from the Stages album, feathers?
Well I’ve only played the track to a handful of people because it’s not out yet, but I’ve had three people cry in a good way and a couple of goose bumps and everyone got excited and told me about something it reminds them of – a person or experience. So so far, it’s gone down well.
I wanted to ask you about how it felt seeing the photos and about the hardest and best parts of the course but we’ll save those questions for another interview if that’s okay. My last question is what’s next for you, after the gig?
I’ve written enough songs for a solo album (including three collaborations too) and I’ve got enough song ideas for ten albums at least – but I need to get funding to make my first album first. And then see if people actually like it too. So I’m in the process of applying for funding for that. I’m now going to be co-producing with Boo on it – which I’m super excited about. He’s amazing to work with, super talented and he makes me laugh all the time too.
Thanks Emily, is there anything else you wanted to add?
I want to say a huge thanks to Boo for so being kind and patient and grounding during what’s felt like a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences for me much of the time. And to everyone we’ve worked with during stages – they’ve been amazing! And to all the participants – I’ll write another blog post on ‘who are stages’ with a bit about each of them because they’re all so flipping brilliant.
I had a lovely time at Edinburgh International Book Festival doing a Tell me about science event for families based on two new books published by Templar and illustrated by Chorkung. They’re called: Tell me about… Plants and Tell me about… Human Body.
This is Lucy from the venue and James from Waterstones – big thanks to James for selling books and to Lucy for all your help. Thanks also to the lovely audience who came along to the event itself and for being up for audience participation – there were some fab moved out there when it came to singing and dancing. This is the lovely bee my cousin Ali knitted for the event, it’s visiting some flowers:
Thanks to Kristina Pedroja, one of the parents at the event who sent me lots of lovely photos including this one of the bee.
Was feeling nervous about the event the day before but I had such a nice day. I travelled on the train and was super early (fear of being late and of loosing things made me more than two hours early) so then I had chance to get photos like this one – this is author (and publisher of one my picture books) Alan Windram from Little Door Books:
He also helped me carry my stuff on arrival – thanks Alan!
And I had lots of time to soak up the atmosphere in the authors yurt, it has such a lovely vibe. I bumped into an author illustrator I’ve admired for a long time, I even wrote a blog about one of her books. We’ve met online but never in person. This is Anna Doherty – she was absolutely lovely!
And I met a new friend called Pilar Garcia de Leaniz – she runs the Illustration Masters for Edinburgh College of Art. Pilar and is also an artist, she did a self portrait workshop at the book festival that I heard was brilliant and we’re now planning some work together. She bust me into the illustration masters end of year show which was stunning – it opens this weekend and is on for a week – I very much recommend it.
And there were other lovely friends I caught up with including Katie from Craigmillar Literacy Trust and a lovely friend from Uist who now lives in Edinburgh. But I forgot to take any photos of them!
Edinburgh Book Festival will always be a super special place for me, my very first book Can’t Dance Cameron laughed here in 2014. I was so nervous about being a new author that my hands shook for a whole week before the event, every time I drank tea. But it was an absolutely lovey place to emerge as a new author in the end – the event sold out and everyone made me feel so very welcome.
I even had a portrait taken by the famous Chris Close, here’s me heading a football pinecone (it was a prop for the event – thanks to my Dad for making that!):
And I came back every year with new books for sold out events all the way up to 2020. A real highlight was visiting prisoners and their families with the Book Festival outreach team too.
But this is the first time I’ve been back at the festival since 2020 – we had the covid years and I lived in the Hebrides then so I watched the book festival online instead. But now I’m back living in the central belt and back at the book festival. It still very much felt like the book festival always did, despite no longer being in the George Street venue. Was so good to be back and to be at the Edinburgh College of art!
I’m really grateful to everyone who bought tickets and came along to the ‘Tell me about science’ event, it was a lovely surprise when I found out it had sold out a few weeks back. I particularly enjoyed answering some really brilliant questions from the children at the end of the event – they included ‘how do you make metal?’. I answered by starting from exploding a star and went all through making planets from the bits and then recycling the crust on our planet to make metal in the rocks but I now realise – I could have just started from rocks and going underground to get it. That might have been a more straightforward answer!
But the audience seemed to enjoy the explanation of how to make metal from the beginning of time (and with it being explained for the four and five year old audience). I summarised the question answer at the end with – so first you need to explode a star. Then the next question was ‘what is the surface of a star like the sun like, is it hard or soft or is it not like a surface at all?’. And so we went on!
I’m back in Edinburgh at the end of the festival on schools gala day to make articulated skeletons and to plant seeds and make fridge magnets as part of the drop in activities for schools. So if you’re visiting with your class, please do come and say hello!
I want to invite you to a neurodivergent shared reading and creative writing group. It starts this Thursday and runs monthly online through the Open Book. I’m leading the group. I’m looking forward to it and I’m also a little nervous because it’s the first one. I really want everyone to enjoy themselves and feel at ease.
The Open Book run over 1000 shared reading groups and creative writing groups every year in communities all over Scotland. That includes in libraries, gardens, refuge shelters and prisons. They’ve been doing what they do for ten years now. They do it because reading improves mental health and helps build community.
When I first got trained to run a reading group, we attended a group as part of the training – I was reminded of how good it is to be read to and have a chance to chat about a text and explore it together. I’d joined book groups in the past and forgotten to read the book so I never actually went along – the great thing about open book groups is there is no homework – you just turn up and read there and then.
I then ran a pilot in-person shared reading group for the Western Isles. It took place in person at Benbecula library on Uist while I lived there last year. Now I live in Fife but I hear the Uist group is still going and I recommend it if you live near – it’s a really lovely group.
The neurodivergent group is a little different because it’s online and it’s a reading AND creative writing group. Plus it’s specifically aimed at neurodivergent people. If you identify as being neurodivergent, you’d be so welcome to try the group. All the details are on the poster below:
And if you know of friends or family who might want to come along, please tell them about it and help spread the word. Here’s a social media shareable version of the invite too, feel free to download this or the poster above:
I’m very much looking forward to hearing what we all write from the same starting point. I’ve just checked the link and this Thursday is SOLD OUT but you can email admin@openbookreading.com to be added to the waiting list.
I went to London to launch the first two titles in a new series of books:
Tell me about… Plants
AND
Tell me about… Human Body
They’re published by Templar Books and gorgeously illustrated by Chorkung. Here’s a close up of the lovely covers:
Yes, that is Trafalgar Square and yes, that is a lot of scaffolding!
The tell me about books are first science books. They actually cover quite a bit of advanced science but it’s explained in a way a four year old can understand. I wrote more about that and the books on the blog here.
Here’s the launch trip, in photos. Firstly, I arrived in London to stay with one of my best friends, Jacquie. I hadn’t met her dogs before but they made me very welcome on arrival:
STOP 1: Kew Gardens
The next morning, I was off to Kew Gardens to meet their publisher Lydia:
Tell me about… Plants is a collaboration with Kew so that meant I had 200 books to sign in Lydia’s office. There are around 75 in this photo, notice the tea – that kept me going, along with some great chat.
Also check my plants themed outfit:
The signed books are now in Kew Gardens shop. If you’re there, please send me a photo of the display. I’d love to see it.
STOP 2: St Mary’s RC Primary School
Then it was time for the first school visit, I felt nervous about sharing the books for the very first time – what would they think? Thankfully they enjoyed them – the children and teachers were great:
My first book tour day was a Friday so I had the rest of the weekend off . I went to see the theatre production of the Shawshank Redemption at Richmond Theatre with Jacquie and her Mum – it was brilliant. It was the first time I’ve ever sat in a box AND we had Prosecco! Then we went for cocktails. It felt exciting to be out and out in London, it felt so very far from two years living in the Hebrides:
I was back at Kew Gardens the next day for a proper explore. I took Jacquie too, this is us by the biggest Lemon I’ve ever seen:
The photo doesn’t do it justice – it’s the size of a human head! Jacquie brought some of her friends along who are Kew members. They bought my books and we had a lovely time together:
Our lovely time included braving the treetop trail. Chloe was nervous so we all held hands. Turns out I was actually more scared then she was:
Wherever we went, every spiral staircase and all over the glass houses there were people getting professional model shots taken. I guessed that’s what they were because of the giant camera, skimpy clothes and a loads of makeup.
I am not a professional model, I’m wasn’t wearing just a bra and Jacquie had a phone (not a giant camera). But we did our best to get some in situ Tell me about… Plants shots. There are my favourites:
My absolute highlight of Kew (apart from the lemon) was learning about Miss Marianne North and seeing the hundreds of plants she painted on her travels all over the world as a single woman in Victorian times. I wanted to cry when I entered the gallery and saw the breath of her work on display – it was so inspiring.
We did afternoon tea and Ramen and I had coffees in actual coffee shops where there were gluten free options. It all felt so exciting, having lived so remotely for so long.
I was surprised at myself – how much I loved a weekend in London. I thought I’d be exhausted and so I’d spend most of the weekend resting. Instead, I was out and about having fun with one of my best pals. Monday came fast and I was back to the book events schedule.
STOP 3: St Mark’s PS
The second school visit was to St Mark’s Primary in Bromley. This was a plant focussed event:
The children were so enthusiastic and full of joy! They had been studying plants in school and were excited about them and about the book. They reacted audibly to every sentence I read – I think they could be the best audience I’ve ever had. After reading select parts of the book to them, they went on to design some really excellent plants. My favourite is the Curly Wurly plant from the Bouncy flower family:
STOP 4: Waterstones Bromley
Then we were off to the local bookshop, Waterstones in Bromley. It was exciting to go in and find the books on the actual shelves. I signed them and we stuck the stickers on. This is lovely book seller Sam:
Then it was lunch with Eleanor Rose (the brilliant publicist who organised this book tour) and that was my work day finished.
Orientation Challenges
I have ADHD so I find orientation in new places hard – especially when there are lots of steps to a journey in a row. My publicist Eleanor was super helpful with this in mind – she put together a schedule with the different transport changes marked. That day, on the way back to my friend’s in Twickerrnam I was getting three trains and a bus. It was just the same route I’d taken to Bromley, but in reverse.
Doing it backwards should have been easy, right? But I somehow got confused and ended up in London Bridge. Overall it took me three and a half hours to get home. My phone died near the end and it was all quite stressful.
This wasn’t a one off, on other days I got off at the wrong stop, even though I knew which stop I was supposed to change at and I was holding the timetable on my knee and checking it at regular intervals. I’d suddenly see a stop out of the train window and remember I needed to get off (so I did, feeling triumphant). It was only after I’d got off, when I’d check the timetable that I’d realise my brain had tricked me into thinking it was that stop. It was actually the previous day’s change stop instead. The worst thing about it is feeling like a total idiot for getting it wrong, even with a cheat sheet on my knee.
I made lots of journey mistakes but googlemaps helped me to reroute using alternative public transport and I was still always on time for things, I always left super early but travelling with lots of changes is hard because it uses a lot of energy because it’s something I struggle with. I can do it but it needs loads of brain power and I make mistakes.
So be aware, if you have friends with ADHD, they’ve often had an ordeal before they even arrive to meet you. There’s also the problems they have making the many decisions needed for getting ready in the morning. They probably also lost various essential items within all of that all too.
I’m trying to be more open about what it’s like to have ADHD. I don’t want to only share all the good stuff in life, without sharing the struggles too. This is normal life for me.
Eleanor’s timetable and understanding helped me so much though. I was really glad I’d asked for that help. It made it so much better than if I’d had to plan all the routes and changes myself, on top of everything else.
I wanted to save focus and energy for performing in the schools. Plus I didn’t feel as ashamed for getting things wrong on the way because I knew they understood it was something I found hard.
That evening my friend got me a pass to her gym and spa – it was the best thing after the very long journey home. I swam in the outdoor pool on my back and watched the stars as the steam rose from the pool. I also managed to walk into the glass door of the outdoor sauna, but that was thankfully more funny than painful. In my defence, I didn’t have any steam on it so it was invisible.
I also did a few plunges in the cold pool – that helped me a lot. And got pummeled by a massage waterfall – my shoulders were killing after walking in heels (I’m not used to wearing them!) and carrying bags. That was me ready for the next day.
STOP 5: Hampden Gurney Primary School
In my third school, I spent most of the time on the human body book. They had some really good questions about the body and the children got really into glossary bingo – one of Eleanor’s good ideas:
STOP 6: Bonnier Books
Then we walked to the Templar offices and had a lovely lunch (pizza!) with the team. We mostly had comedy chat about our pets – it was really nice to get to know each other socially, when our usual communications are all work related.
Then we were off on a bookshop tour of Central London, here are all the shops we visited:
Then it was back to the Bonnier offices for some filming for TikTok. At first I was answering Eleanor’s questions as if I were speaking to children and she reminded me I was actually speaking to the parents! But I got it after that. This is me having a quick read of the questions before we filmed:
I walked from there to Conway Hall for the launch of an exciting new two year illustration course I’m on called Pathways into Children’s Publishing.
I felt so relived, by the time I got there (and on time – phew!). I felt proud I’d got through all the events that day and that week. It had felt like lots of challenges to overcome and that meant I hadn’t really had time to feel nervous in the build up to the Pathways launch – I’d been so focused on the book tour.
When I arrived I had the joy of being one of many and in the background. I didn’t have to perform to children or be filmed and I didn’t need to sign any more books. Instead I had a glass of wine and relaxed to enjoy the evening.
I cried on two occasion that night, once during Dylan Calder the CEO’s speech – it was so moving. I felt proud and excited to be part of an organisation that was doing something so valuable and brilliant in the industry. You can watch the speech online here.
The second time I cried was when I realised Yuval Zommer was standing right next to be during a social chat. He is my nonfiction illustration hero – I couldn’t believe it was actually him.
“It’s you! I can’t believe you’re standing right there! I love your books so much!” (I said)
And he said he knew me from social media, he even knew my name. I was quite flabbergasted by this and then Yuval asked me if I was teaching on the course! I explained I was mentee and would be learning. I was very excited to discover he was one of the tutors and mentors on pathways.
We had a really lovely chat about non fiction and the beautiful children’s art that gets made, inspired by his books (check out his instagram here to see it!).
I told him how much I love that he combines accuracy in terms of the non-fiction topic but with a gorgeous fine art print style – the books really are so beautiful!
I also got to catch up with Leah, the Designer from Floris Books. It was so nice to see one familiar face there. Floris publish some of my picture books as an author. And I got to meet lots of the mentees too, that was really lovely.
STOP 11 and 12: Waterstones Twickenam and Waterstones Prices Street Edinburgh
The next day, I did one last book shop on the way back to Scotland – Waterstones Twickernam. And one more bookshop on arrival in Edinburgh too, Waterstone Edinburgh:
It felt good to be back in Scotland. And that was my London trip and the tell me about series launched, with no tears apart from good ones. I really hope you enjoy reading the books.
Massive thanks to Eleanor Rose for organising such a great tour and for being brilliant company:
Also thanks to the whole team at Bonnier Books and Templar – especially my Editor Ruth Symons.
I’ve been working on a project funded by Museums Galleries Scotland for the year of stories. My work included nature storytelling events at the museum, launching a children’s writing competition online, judging entries and presenting prizes in person.
I got to wear this gorgeous 1920s cloak for the children’s writing competition launch video:
To enter, the children had to write a story inspired by the Highland Folk Museum – it could be inspired by one of the 35 historical buildings on site, or by one of the people who lived or worked there, or by one of the museum artefacts. They could go on a virtual tour of the buildings online or visit the museum in person for inspiration. We had entires from all over the world!
This month I had the priviledge of presenting prizes to the winners. I travelled to Inverness High School with Jo from the Highland Folk Museum. We met Karina, the winner in the older age category. Karina wrote a brilliant story about Lochahully house. We took Karina to the chocolate café Xoco with her friend and the school librarian, Susan. They could order whatever they wanted:
Then we went to Waterstones Inverness so Karina could browse the books and spend her £30 book voucher prize. We wanted her to feel special and have a day to remember. Here she is with her certificate:
Then I worked with the creative writing group and higher English group at Inverness High to run a writing workshop.
For the primary age children, Fiona from Newtonmore Primary was the overall winner with her story Lily Smith, a young traveller
Congratulations Fiona! We had three highly commended winners too, including Fiona again and Oscar. One highly commended entry turned out to be a group writing effort from Newtonmore Primary, so they all won!
We presented the winners with certificates and prizes on stage after I did a Crime Squirrel Investigators Assembly (with songs, stories, science and a water squirting squirrel).
Fiona was the overall winner so her class got an author visit too. I did a ‘Surfing the Moon’ event and a mini science show on energy (with a rocket making workshop):
I’ll add a link to the winning stories here, once they are published on the Highland Folk Museum Website. All the shortlisted entries were sent to me without names for judging – I really enjoyed reading them.
Newtonmore Primary and Kingussie Primary had writing workshops with author Merryn Glover as part of the project too. That could explain why they wrote such brilliant stories! Here we are together back in the summer, taking a tour of the museum and coming up with ideas for the school workshops:
And over the October Tattie holidays, there were free storytelling events at the Highland Folk Museum. I came along for a couple of days to run nature storytelling sessions and woodland crafts:
We started our first session of the day with just one family and then suddenly, 40 people came over the hill from the pine forest! Was so lovely to see all the families walking towards us. They weren’t an organised group, it had just taken a while for them to walk to where we were storytelling (it’s a huge place) after the museum opened. We squashed everyone in and from then on, we were full every session. Here are some of the children (and their parents and grandparents) dancing for a session:
I loved working with the staff at the museum and it was a joy to be working outside too. I especially loved seeing all the lovely crafty creations the children made. Here are just a few of their gorgeous red squirrel and bat fridge magnets:
I’ll be back at the Highland Folk Museum in the February break to run more crafts and family storytelling (with hot chocolate) check out my events page or the highland folk museum website nearer the time for details.
I have some really, really exciting news. I’ve written a new series of first science books for four and five year olds. The first two books in the series are published by Templar in February 2023 and I’ve just got my advance copies – I love them. They’re gorgeously illustrated by the brilliant Chorkung.
I called the series ‘Tell Me About’ because I’ve written them in storytelling style. They’re not so much fact books, they’re more ‘pull up an armchair and listen to a story that’s about science’ kind of books. If that sounds a bit strange, here’s an example of one of my favourite spreads from the body book. It explains neuroplasticity of the brain (and thinking and learning) for four year olds. It’s done with the help of squirrels – I love squirrels:
I’m also super proud of this spread on feelings:
I’m a counsellor and I’ve done lots of research on feelings so I’m glad I was able to explain how we all have our own legitimate reactions and feelings, based on who we are and our life experiences. It uses the example of a dog to help. It also explains the power of empathy.
I think so many adults stuggle to understand this, they judge how someone should feel, based on their own feelings and even tell others their feelings are wrong or they shouldn’t feel that way when actually, they’re real and legitimate to the person feeling them.
Here are the lovely covers:
And the back covers:
I wanted to use this series to explain the amazing and complicated things inside us and around us but I wanted to make them easy to understand and super beautiful. I hope these books have done that. I feel really proud of them. These books were a team effort so huge thanks to my editor Ruth Symmons for believing in my voice and to the designer Nathalie and the illustrator Chorkung for all their wonderful creativity. Thanks to my agent Lindsey Fraser too.
Here’s an example from the plants book – I explain how water molecules pull each other up the stem as water evaporates from the leaves, THE DROPS ARE HOLDING HANDS:
I also love the grasses spreads because this was a spread my editor Ruth questioned (do we need a whole spread on grasses?) and then I explained how amazing grasses were and that they weren’t just green grass so then she loved this spread:
I had to read three plant encyclopaedias and lots of books on the body (including books like Anatomy for Dummies). It’s important I read adult books on the topics, so I can simplify things down and make decisions on what to include from an overall knowledge base. If I looked at children’s books on the topic, they’ve already been simplified and I risk not fully understanding the science behind things. I’d also end up making books that are like every other book on the topic for that age. These books certainly aren’t like that.
Tell Me About: Plants is a partnership with Kew Gardens. That means they reviewed the contents pages (they gave it a YES WE LOVE IT!) and they fact checked the final text and illustrations. I’m super excited to be working with them and hope do events at Kew Gardens in February when the books are published. Check out my events page for more details nearer the time.
I’ve written two more books in the series but I can’t tell you what they’re about just yet because they’re published in 2024.
There is a competition running on Twitter and Instagram to win an advance copy of plants – you have until 10th December to enter by commenting with you favourite plant! Click on the links above to be taken to the Templar Books social media accounts.
I finally got my hands on a copy of my latest book, ‘Why is the Sky Blue?’ Published by DK in November 2022. It’s a reprint of ‘Do you know about Science?’ so it’s not a brand new book but this is a lovely new cover:
The new title and cover are to help it to tie in with the rest of the series, I wrote another book in the series all about the body, it’s called ‘Why is blood red?’
This book is general science, here’s a look inside:
And finally the back cover:
Huge thanks to Blackwells bookshop in Edinburgh for taking my photo with the book. I signed their copy along with a big pile of picture books so if you’re in the area, you can get a signed book from them for Christmas!
This is me, with my agent Lindsey Fraser (and her dog Taggart) and my latest book, ‘Surfing the Moon’. It’s illustrated by Omar Aranda and published by HarperCollins.
We were meeting for a beach walk and I had no idea she had advance copies of Surfing the Moon, hidden in her bag. This explains my lack of makeup and unstyled hair for the ‘I’ve got a new book published’ photo. But enough about that, I want to tell you about why I’m excited.
I’ve written lots of books but ‘Surfing the Moon’ is my first neurodiverse book. My Mum was asking me what neurodiverse means so if you’ve not heard of it, it’s an umbrella term that covers different ways of thinking including learning difficulties and cognitive disorders. I’m neuroverse but I’ve kept that quiet until now. I’ll come on to that later but first I wanted to show you the lovely front cover:
The little green tab at the top means it’s an emerald book – it’s a band Collins Primary use to let you know it’s aimed at children age eight and nine years. But younger and older children can read it too. Here’s what it say on the back cover:
Jack knows he’s different from other kids – he doesn’t think the way they do. Jack’s love of the moon leads him on a courageous journey into the sea. This is a story about neurodiversity, finding new friends, facing your fears and following your dreams.
Jack in the story is a boy with ASD or autism spectrum disorder. It’s not mentioned in the book, we just know he thinks differently because it’s written from his first person perspective. This is how it begins:
This is this is the part where Jack has his first surf lesson:
This is the part half way through his second surf lesson:
If you want to know what happens next, you’re invited to the book launch tour in the Western Isles. We’ll be making rockets too:
If that’s a bit far away, I’ll be doing events in central Scotland and England in the autumn, check out my events page here.
So where did the story idea come from?
I learned to surf myself, in Wales, so I had the awful experience of wipeouts and I know what it feels like to learn and to fail. I’ve felt the rush of catching a first wave. I love being outdoors and in the sea.
I was a volunteer for the wave project in Dunbar, Scotland. The wave project works with young people with low confidence and high anxiety, teaching them to surf. I was a surf buddy just like Sam is, in the story. I didn’t work with anyone like Jack but I wanted to write a book from a neurodiverse perspective partly because I’m neurodiverse.
I have ADHD but like 9/10 adults with ADHD, it wasn’t picked up in school. I always felt different and like there was something wrong with me but I wasn’t diagnosed until I was in my thirties. It was and is a positive thing for me, to get a diagnosis. It’s helped me to understand why I struggle with some things, that others don’t and it’s helped me to be kinder to myself about that.
It’s also helped me to like and appreciate the way I think and feel and to be more myself. I’d got used to hiding my enthusiasm and other thoughts and feelings because of a lifetime of having my reactions rejected, even if it’s just by an eye role – I noticed and I tried to change to try to fit in. It was exhausting.
But now I know different can be good – for example I can come up with lots of creative ideas because my brain leaps around and joins things up in a way that other people don’t. And it’s okay if people think I’m too this or too that – because I don’t need to be friends with those people.
I’ve always had friends who like me as I am, so I’m not sure why I’ve spent so many years trying to gain approval from people who treat me as if there’s something wrong with me. I’m grateful though, that that the majority of people treat me as if I’m valuable and have something good to contribute.
I want children who think differently to be able to read about someone like them, it might help them to feel less alone and to feel more confident in who they are. And I’d like the children around them to be able to understand what it’s like to be neurodiverse.
I read the story to St Bartholomew’s Primary School:
They won the Glasgow Loves Reading Campaign and their prize was a visit from me. I was a bit nervous, doing the first ever reading of the book and well before it was even published. What if they didn’t like it?
But as I read, the children became totally transfixed by Jack and his story. The teacher was carrying the laptop around to try to show me the silent stillness of the children in her class, as I read.
We’ve all said things we regret, or know what it’s like to fail, or to feel scared, or to be told off by a teacher, or to have people laugh at us. So of course they got it, I didn’t need to feel worried. And it’s an exciting adventure story too. They really wanted to know what happened next.
I was so encouraged by the children’s thoughts and enthusiasm as we paused at various points to discuss what was happening together.
I answered one of their many questions, right at the end, by explaining I had ADHD and it was just as ordinary for them, as me telling them my favourite colour.
They didn’t know that I hadn’t told groups before, about ADHD. They didn’t know I wasn’t planning to tell them, but I’m really glad I did.
I hope those children in the class who think differently, will be encouraged to know they can succeed and write a book even, when they grow up. And I hope those around them will see ADHD positively, when they know adults like me are neurodiverse too.
auntyemily 