by Michele Clark McConnochie | Feb 19, 2020 | Writing for Children and Young Adults
I’m really excited to be working with a group of Rapaki Rangers (a Girl Guide division in Christchurch, New Zealand) this Saturday. They are running a girl-led event which they have called “Girl Esteem” and their aims are to help girl guides: • Be balanced – To...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Jan 30, 2020 | The Dralfynia Sagas, Writing, Writing for Children and Young Adults
I first joined the Brownies when I was 7 or 8 years old, when my father was stationed in West Berlin in what was then West Germany. I moved onto the Girl Guides both there and in Telford, England. I wasn’t the most dedicated, but even decades later, I can still...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Sep 17, 2019 | Cats, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing for Children and Young Adults
When I first went freelance a few years ago, I was grateful for the chance to work stress-free and uninterrupted. I reckoned without my two rescue cats – Cleo and Twinkle. Here is a typical day. 6:15am Alarm. Writer gets up to make tea. Cleo and Twinkle rush to show...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Mar 8, 2018 | Writing for Children and Young Adults
When I first started teaching, back in the 1990s, I mainly taught teenagers. It used to grieve me to see so many young women behaving as they and their futures and careers were less important than those of the boyfriends they so desperately wanted. Those experiences...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Feb 12, 2018 | The Dralfynia Sagas, Writing for Children and Young Adults
All of a sudden, 2018 is here and being a published author is actually real! So, dates for the diary so far: May 1st – the e-book of The Uncooperative Flying Carpet is launched. TBC – the world launch of the book will take place in Timaru, New Zealand...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Feb 6, 2018 | Big Boots, Classic children's books, Travel Writing, Writing for Children and Young Adults
To quote the late George Michael, you “gotta have Faith,” and as I delve deeper into the lives of the wonderful children’s authors who I am writing about for Big Boots, that certainly seems to be a running theme. Firstly, I explored the life and...