MY BOOKS
 |
Drawing a Veil “Why didn’t you tell me?” Ellie whispered. “I’m your best friend!” “I didn’t want you to talk me out of it.” Ellie is shocked and surprised when her best friend Amina turns up at school with a headscarf covering her hair. How will the rest of the class react? Will Ellie go back to an older, easier, less demanding friendship? Will Amina still be able to stand up for herself and others? I wrote this short novella because I wanted to explore our right to make choices, even choices our friends may not understand or agree with. And the chase scene at the end was inspired by the park and docks very near my home! |
 |
Orange Juice Peas “No more peas, peas!” Ben’s little sister Jessie is learning to be polite, but she doesn’t always get it right. The new babysitter doesn’t understand what Jessie wants for tea, and Ben is laughing far too much to help out, until the very end… I made this story up to tell my own two children, and it made them laugh so much that I turned it into a text for a picture book. We then had great fun researching it by flicking peas round our kitchen! Lizzie Wells’ pictures are so colourful, cheerful and funny, I’m really looking forward to reading this with wee ones! |
 |
First Aid For Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts “And the best bit is…” Helen flicked a few pages back in the book, “the best bit is, this isn’t some fairy tale like Cinderella that could come from any country. This one is set in Scotland…” Helen opens the door one night to find a very strange boy on the doorstep. A boy who needs first aid … from a vet. But Helen’s mum, the local vet, only believes in science books, not in fabled beasts, so Helen borrows some veterinary equipment, heals his wound, and asks how he got injured. She then finds herself involved in a quest for a lost book, a battle by a Borders wood, an ambush in Orkney and a chase through dark tunnels under Edinburgh. She discovers a talent for riddles as well as first aid, and meets many other fabled beasts who live just off the edges of our maps.This was the first children’s book I wrote, and I wanted to use all the elements I love from adventure stories and fairy tales, but set it in the Scotland I know. So there are dragons and monsters, spells and riddles, but also violin rehearsals, packed lunches, and a mum who expects the heroine to go to bed at a sensible time.I’m really delighted that First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts won the Royal Mail Awards last year, and I’m also delighted with the new cover, by artist Maria Perez Sanz, who also created the wonderful cover for the sequel Wolf Notes. |
 |
Wolf Notes by Lari Don “She’s met some fabled beasts before, has she? She thinks we’re all friendly and gentle and VEGETARIAN, does she?” In the sequel to First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts, Helen’s musical skills put her in deadly danger, and to escape she has to work with fabled beasts who aren’t friendly or trustworthy, and who certainly aren’t vegetarian!Wolf Notes is set on the edge of a forest in the Highlands, and includes a night-time dragon flight to Skye, breaking and entering a castle, some lifesaving jam sandwiches, and, of course, a pack of wolves.I had a brilliant time writing this book, researching wolves, ancient Celtic heroes and sword fights. I also really enjoyed spending more time with Helen, Yann and the other fabled beasts. And this time Helen isn’t just helping her friends solve their problems, she’s the one in danger, which made it even more exciting to write. Also it gave me an excuse to have fun in forests and spend a week in Skye. |
 |
Storm Singing “Helen flung her hands out behind her, and the edge of the cliff slid away under her fingers…” Storm Singing is the third book in the First Aid for Fairies series. It’s set on the north coast of Sutherland, using the cliffs, caves, islands and waves of that most isolated and least populated part of Scotland, so for the first time the fabled beasts can get out and have adventures during the day. And I was able to write cliffhangers set on actual cliffs! Rona the selkie returns in this book, taking on coastal contests and tasks, with the help (mostly) of Helen and the other fabled beasts.I think I put my favourite characters in the most difficult situations I’ve ever invented in this adventure, and I also had a huge amount of fun creating the baddie for this book. It’s pink. Honestly.PUBLISHED IN JUNE 2011! |
 |
Rocking Horse War “The triplets and the rocking horses had disappeared together. But had the triplets taken the horses? Or had the horses taken the triplets?”Pearl can’t believe that she is following the hoofprints of galloping wooden horses. But her day in the moors and mountains of Perthshire just keeps getting stranger and more dangerous, as she searches for her missing brother and sisters. She has to deal with rocks which don’t stay still, magic which everyone but her seems to be able to use, and a very irritating boy who might be able to help, or might be the cause of all her problems.I had a fantastic time writing this book, partly because I loved writing about mountains and cliffs, but also because one of the characters tried to take over the story and change the ending, which made it much more exciting to write! |
 |
Big Bottom Hunt “Is this your bottom?”That could be a very cheeky question. “Is this your bottom?” But Sandy and Ella are really just trying to be helpful when they ask all their neighbours about their bottoms, as a bottom print is the only clue they have to a mystery on the beach.This is my first picture book, and it was wonderful to see the pictures, by Gabby Grant, bring the story to life. Not just the bottoms (lots of bottoms – bottoms in nappies, kilts, jeans, and shorts. Even a bottom that claims to be a posterior!) but also the lively wildlife on the beach, and the looks on the neighbours faces when they are asked about their bottoms. And the very polite but slightly cheeky look on a small child’s face when they say, just one more time, “Excuse me, but is this your bottom?” |
 |
How to Make a Heron Happy “Hamish is worried about the heron in the park, because it always looks grumpy, so he has lots of ideas to cheer it up. But maybe it isn’t grumpy after all…”I’ve always loved herons, because they look impossibly exotic and fancy to be in a dreich Scottish park or river. So I’ve always been on the look out for good books about herons. After years of looking out and never finding, I just decided to write one myself! Luckily for you, I didn’t draw the pictures – Nicola O’Byrne has does some gorgeous pictures of our beautiful grumpy heron. The flying heron on page 21 is my favourite! |
 |
The Mountain’s BloodI opened my wardrobe, and an axe fell out, just missing my toes.“Goddess of LOVE! Yuck! Why do I have to be Goddess of LOVE? I’ll never get to use my axe when I’m just Goddess of Love.”Being the Sumerian Goddess of Love doesn’t give Inanna much opportunity to use the weapons in her wardrobe. But then she discovers a mountain which is poisoning the land, which won’t stop growing, and which refuses to bow down to her. None of the other gods have the courage to face it. Can Inanna defeat the mountain?I wrote this book partly because I was so delighted to find an ancient myth with a real kick-ass heroine, who doesn’t hang about waiting for some muscle-bound boy to come and save her, and partly because so few people know about the earliest written human stories – the cuneiform poetry and songs of the Sumerian myths, and I wanted to share them with as many readers as possible.Inanna is a brilliant heroine, and I had a great time getting to know her and researching 5000 year old Sumerian culture to retell this amazing old story. And the pictures by Paul Duffield are fantastic. Which is just as well, because you really don’t want to annoy this girl. And calling her ancient isn’t wise either, because she still keeps that axe pretty sharp…
Published 20 January 2011 |
 |
Tam O Shanter “No matter what stories Tam had heard about the kirk at Alloway, he was always up for a party. And he had left the pub long before he was ready to go to bed. So he pulled Meg towards the church. This sounded like a party worth gatecrashing.”I had another book published this summer: a retelling of Tam O’Shanter, with fantastically spooky pictures by Peter Clover. If you’re easily scared, you should read it out in the bright sunlight, not in the dark at night!This was an amazing book to write, because for the first time in my writing career, I knew how the story was going to end before I started writing it. But I didn’t know how I was going to get to the end, nor who I was going to meet along the way. Also I didn’t know how the words and pictures would work together. It was really exciting to see the pictures for the first time, and discover what my words had inspired the illustrator to imagine and create.It was also quite a scary book to write – not just because it’s about witches, warlocks, the devil and nasty gory bits of bodies on an altar, but because this is a story told by Robert Burns in his brilliant and very famous poem. Walking in his footsteps is a pretty daunting task for any writer. But I went to Alloway and ran down the hill to the bridge, and I read the traditional tales that had inspired Burns, then I wrote my own version. See what you think! |
How to buy my books
You can get my books from my publishers:
 |
Floris Books» |
 |
Barrington Stoke » |
| you can buy them online: | |
 |
Amazon» |
 |
Books From Scotland» |
| or even better – you can get them in a real bookshop, with real bookshelves and real booksellers! | |