Mapping a Series and Authors for Japan

Welcome to Hingle - My Fictitious Village
Click on it to see a larger version 

This was my last year's birthday present from Husband up the Hill - an A2 map of the fictitious village 'somewhere in North Staffordshire' where the characters in my (proposed) series for 8 -10 year olds live. 
I think Loretta, the graphic designer, has done a fantastic job; she had to work off my really, really rough and messy plan.
I always find having a map gets the muse working on more storylines.
So, what gets your muse working?


If either of my bids at Authors for Japan win, it will be one of the stories for this series I'll have critiqued.

Ooh, An Award and a Win and Hedgehog

Thanks to Debs of Daydreams in the Shed
for this lovely award.
The rules are that I post seven things about me that you didn't know and then nominate seven other bloggers for this award.

1: Over the years, I have hand-reared seven baby hedgehogs
2: When we had fish and chip shops, I was known as the Mushy Peas Queen
3: I wrote most of the stories for My Little Pony comic for eight years
4: I get lost if I turn round twice
5: I can't drive (possibly related to#4)
6: Slugs make my ears pop
7: I love very sweet things to eat but can't stand sweet drinks
OK, so now for the nominations:

Aaaagh! Now I can't work out how to do the link thingie so I'll just have to name, Crystal Jigsaw, Shirley Wells, Amanda Ashby, http://laneswrite.blogspot.com/, http://nelldixonrw.blogspot.com/,

http://sallyquilfordblog.co.uk/ and The Real   Nicky Schmidt @  http://absolutevanilla.blogspot.com/

And the 'Win' bit of this post:  I won Kate Johnson's novel, The Untied Kingdom



Sick baby hedgehog
First Day





Baby hedgehog, Billie,
3 days later 1 oz heavier

Click the pictures to see larger version

The Winner of Run Rabbit Run is...

Barbara Mitchelhill's dog, Ella, has picked the winner of a signed copy of Run Rabbit Run

Congratulations to Shirley Wells!

Email Barbara your address, Shirley, and she'll post the book to you.

Wow! Look at This!

I asked Barbara what made her write a book set in WW2 and did she surround herself with items from that era.
Here are her answers:
Why I wrote a book set in WW2
After my Aunt Sarah, who was well into her nineties,
gave me a brooch with a picture of her younger brother, Fred, set in it, she told me something she must have been holding secret for over fifty years.
Fred had hated the thought of war and wanted to register as a conscientious objector.
But the shame on the family would have been enormous as all the local lads had left for the front. He never did register. Maybe Aunt Sarah persuaded him to join up. I don't know. But within a year he was a prisoner of war and died building the Burma Railway.
I became very interested in conscientious objectors and so I wrote Run Rabbit Run.

While I was writing the book, I didn't surround myself with WW2 items but I did do a lot of research, including the wonderful Whiteway colony in Gloucestershire.
But now I do have some WW2 items, ready for school visits.
One is a baby's gas mask which the mother wore like a back pack.



It's truly scary!

Barabara, thank you for the great answers.

Remember, if you have any questions for Barbara, post them in the Comments section on the post before this one.
You could win a signed copy of Run Rabbit Run
But, hurry! The draw will take place on March 4th.