Rae of Light

I had forgotten how much fun it is writing a children’s book or anything related to it. In the last couple of years themes and topics in my writing haven’t exactly been light-hearted. To name just a few: segregation, oppression and universal ecological catastrophe. See what I mean? Earlier this year I asked my Facebook followers to choose my next WIP and The Witch Adoption Project [WAP] came out tops. This sequel was bound to happen as I’d already been mulling over what was happening to the characters of The Lonely Dragon since I left them on Long Upon A Time world. In fact I’d been storing ideas in a folder I like to call The Vault. WAP certainly contains serious themes (issues faced by children in the foster system being one of them) but several of the characters mean I can explore a sillier side to my nature as I delve into what makes a particular character tick. Quite early on I began to feel the need to add the voice of Kastaspella’s cat Jinx into the sequel. Natural...

Originally a guest post on Rita Carla Monticelli's blog. Before settling down to writing and self-publishing I used to be a full time teacher in an inner city London school. Regardless of the country you teach in, anyone will tell you this is a challenging environment. Very quickly into my teaching practice I realised I had a knack for communicating with children with Special Needs (SEN as it’s called here in the UK). Most times when people think of Special Needs they latch onto the idea of a child with learning difficulties. Several times during my 13 year teaching stint I was reminded that while the majority of my students did indeed have these difficulties there were others whose behaviour marked them as SEN when in fact they were highly intelligent. Their lack of engagement with the average classroom content and insular or confrontational attitude masked their talent. At the very start of my teaching career, a...