August – Blitzers, Silly Sausage Dogs, and Edinburgh Events!

31 July 2025

Hello, and welcome to August!

It's high summer, full of book releases, festivals, and all sorts of fun out there – two new books, some Life Change decisions, and of course August in Edinburgh means … festival events!

Blimey it's August already?

I hope you're all having a lovely summer. Mine has been packed. This year was pretty big for me, as I made a decision to become a full-time author, starting in May. It's a scary time to do it – I've been a software developer for most of my life, so arguably I'm leaving the industry that's doing it's best to destroy the industry I've switched too… 😬 But I've always believed you should do the thing that makes your heart sing, and the last ten years of writing has done that for me. I hope it continues!

August Events!

Edinburgh in August is festival city, and I have booky events – join me if you can!

Books!

2025 was busy for lots of reasons, but mostly because I have FOUR books out this year, phew!

I AM RAVEN (April) is the sequel to the award-winning I Am Wolf, following Brann as she searches across their world for her lost Raven crew and battles with her own secrets. I've absolutely loved working on this trilogy, and the edits are away now for the final book, coming 2026!

ONE CHEEKY OCTOPUS (February) was my second book illustrated by the incredible Alex Willmore, in the One Hungry Dragon series of counting picture books. Every time I see Alex's work it makes me laugh, and Sylvester the Cheeky Octopus is wonderful. I've had so much fun doing storytelling events with this one!

BLITZERS (August) – last year I released Reek, my first book with Barrington Stoke. I loved the challenge of telling a 'proper' story in an accessible, super-readable and dyslexia-friendly form, and I've had wonderful feedback from readers. So I'm chuffed to be able to publish a second book with them: BLITZERS! Virtual fighting creatures, killer robots and shady corporations, but also toxic masculinity, and the power of empathy… Join me at the Edinburgh Book Festival for its very first reveal!

ONE SILLY SAUSAGE DOG (August) – how lucky am I to get to work with Alex twice in the same year? Out this August, One Silly Sausage Dog is a tale of a very lovely, but very silly, dog named Cordelia, the nonsense she gets up to, and the chaos she causes! Catch me in Edinburgh for two free storytelling sessions all about Cordelia's nonsense, at the Edinburgh Book Festival and Edinburgh ALT Book Fringe!

Scottish Book Trust Reading Schools Ambassador

This year I was honoured to accept the role of Scottish Book Trust Reading Schools Ambassador, joining the wonderful Nadine Aisha Jassat. I'll be visiting primary schools all over Scotland during 2025-2026, chatting to pupils and teachers about how they read, what they read, and how to encourage others to find the joy in reading. I can't wait!

I Am Reading…

As part of my role as Reading Schools Ambassador, and inspired by the Scottish Book Trust's "Ask Me What I'm Reading" badges, I thought one of the best things I could do would be to share the books that I've loved reading recently. Each week I'll be sharing the kids' books I've read and enjoyed, and you can find them all on my I AM READING page. I'm always open to suggestions, too!

Coming Soon…

There's more on the horizon, of course! The final volume of the I Am Wolf series is out in April 2026, and a new picture book, STICKY MILDRED – illustrated by the brilliant Rikin Parekh – comes out in February!

And I'll be visiting schools, libraries and festivals across the UK. If you're interested in a visit, find out more and get in touch!

Lastly, something I'm incredibly excited about. 2027 will be the 50th anniversary of the Voyager space probes on their missions to the outer planets and further into space than any other human-made thing has ever been, and I'm delighted to announce that I will be working with publishers Moon+Bird to release Voyager 1's story as a non-fiction picture book. It's a project that makes my science-loving, space-crazy, geeky heart sing 😊.

I hope you enjoy your August, and I hope I get to see some of you at events! And in the meantime… Happy Reading!