June's Monthly Memo

June has been one of those months where my feet have barely touched the ground, both with writing & mentoring, and my personal life.

Firstly, the events planned around the launch of Anna’s Promise are almost at an end. Thank goodness for Satnav as I’ve certainly put the miles in this month.

Next up is Waterstones in Oban on Saturday. Then later in July, I have closed book group events within libraries. They will see me travel to Glasgow, before the final event in Waterstones in Stirling towards the end of August. For anyone hoping to come along to the Stirling event, we are just trying to finalise a date. With the shopping centre now closed in the evenings, Waterstones can no longer hold these events in store so we are looking to hold one in the Central Library once we have found a date that works for them, Waterstones and me.

Thank you to everyone who has taken time out of their evenings to come along. I have met the most wonderful people, caught up with friends and been made extremely welcome by Waterstones who have been fantastic hosts.

It was also an absolute pleasure to help my lovely local indie book shop, Adventure Into Books in Blairgowrie, celebrate Independent Book Shop Week. It was great catching up with friends, family and meet new readers of The Maren Bay series series. If you are ever passing, this is a gem of a book store.

Having been away from my home town for over thirty years, many people recognise me from years gone by but still only know me under my maiden name, so they are unaware that Pauline Tait is actually me. They remember me from school, or from working in the local pharmacy, which is something I’m going to have to work on.

As you can probably imagine, with all that’s been going on, I haven’t got much writing done. But I do have a solid plot for the next in series, Amelia’s Home, which I’m looking forward to getting stuck into properly in the coming weeks. She will encounter a firefighter, but will his intentions be sincere?

That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been behind my desk. With the usual duo for company…

… I have been working with new mentoring clients as I lead them through their own writing and author journeys.

And although I can’t name names for obvious reasons, those who have reached the stage of publication have gained Waterstones events, have their books on the shelves of Waterstones and one has just won an award for her title.

During my recent events, I have been asked why I decided to branch out into mentoring. To quote, ‘aren’t you busy enough?’

Yes, I am!!!!! 😂 But having had to think about it, the penny has dropped. Helping others is naturally who I am, whether it was when I worked in pharmacy, retrained to work with children who needed extra-curricular help in literacy or now mentoring fellow children’s authors, helping others comes naturally and I get real pleasure in seeing them succeed.

My diary is currently full for authors wanting to sign up to my six-week course on writing children’s picture books, but I will be announcing in the coming days that I will be running it again starting the first week in September. For anyone who may be interested, just get in touch.

I do still have limited availability for my one hour mentoring sessions. They are perfect for authors who need guidance in specific areas of their writing or publishing journey.

I’m thrilled that Netflix are again sponsoring this weeks newsletter.

For those of you who don’t know, this is a weekly newsletter that I write for parents and carers of reluctant readers.

I draw on my knowledge and experiences gained while working in school and I’m both surprised and delighted at the continuing rise in the number of people subscribing.

I’ve stumbled into something that is quite niche, relevant and, it would appear, invaluable.

With the school holidays about to start here in Scotland, and a few weeks later in England and around the world, this week’s newsletter is entitled School's Out, Books Are In – Making Holiday Reading Fun.

You can read this newsletter along with the back library by following the link below.

Reluctant Readers Weekly Newsletters

A reminder, these newsletter are intentionally short to fit with busy working and family life. They are designed to be read in the few short minutes you might have while waiting at the school gate, after-school club or, if you’re anything like I was, navigating whatever muddy sport pitch I had to plough through or while sweltering as my kids had their swimming lessons.

It’s all go behind the scenes too. As many of you know last year was given over to renovating our house. This year, we are overhauling the garden… when events and the Scottish weather allow.

In preparation, my husband had dug out twenty four (not that he was counting 😂) tree, hedge and shrub roots with his bare hands (he’s a farmer’s son💪). All were apparently between thirty and forty years old, so you can imagine it wasn’t an easy job. And given many were only three feet from our windows and towered way above them, you can also imagine how much light is now getting into the house.

So it’s all about digging out a massive banking, regaining some space and replanting to encourage the bees, butterflies and insects.

I have an upcoming Waterstones tour with The Fairy in the Kettle trilogy. I will also be in Newington Library in Edinburgh on the 22nd of July at 2pm.

All events will follow the usual format. I’ll be reading from one of my books and bringing out the fairy arts and crafts. All are free to attend and perfect for fairy fans from 3 to 8 years.

I only have the above two weeks available to slot everything into as I’ve blanked my diary out for the first two weeks in July. I’ll have no mentoring availability within these two weeks, either. But more on that will follow in next month’s monthly memo.

In the meantime, have a great July.

And, hopefully, the sun will finally shine for us here in Scotland!

Pauline xx