Kate Thompson

In the midst of a global pandemic, with around a third of the world’s population currently under lockdown, it suddenly feels much more difficult to sit down and create stories.

There will be times, like now, when the world seems to be filled with nothing but bad news. As adults, this can make us feel anxious, or scared about what the future holds. However, we aren’t the only ones exposed to world events.

Last week I entered Vivian Kirkfield’s 50 precious words writing contest. The brief was to write a story for kids with a word count of 50 or fewer. As a picture book writer, I’m used to writing with limited word counts but this was a new challenge!

I’ve not had much time to write recently due to family commitments, so when I saw that Susanna Hill was running a Valentiny Writing Contest, I really wanted to take part.

You refresh your inbox for what seems like the hundredth time that day, and an email appears. But this is not just any email; this email is from a publisher you submitted to months ago.

Next week is Children’s Mental Health Week. It has been set up by the children’s mental health charity, Place2Be, with the theme ‘Find Your Brave’.

As Big Ben struck midnight to mark the start of 2020, I had an extra reason to celebrate – my debut authored picture book, Superheroes Don’t Get Scared, is being published this year!