Catching Up - Sunday 25th September 2011

Well. It's been a long time since I updated things here. You might be forgiven for thinking I've been twiddling my thumbs but anyone who follows me on Twitter will know that while I've done a lot less writing than usual this year, I haven't exactly been lazing by the pool. So, in order to bring you up to date, here's a whistle-stop tour of this year's highlights:

• Hay Festival in June - I did three events at the fabulous Hay on Wye Literary Festival and had a blast. Saw lots of fab friends and made a few new ones. Developed a mild crush on Dara O'Briain after seeing his show.

• Portsmouth Book Award - I visited Portsmouth in July to attend the awards for their book awards and My So-Called Afterlife was narrowly pipped to the post by Paul Dowswell with Auslander. St Edmund's Catholic School performed the amazing Ghost Rap (based on MSCA) and have very kindly recorded it for me. I absolutely love it - have a look and let me know what you think!

• Bolton Book Award - I also travelled to the Bolton Book Award, where My So-Called Haunting was narrowly beaten by Steve Voake's Fightback (I know, I know - always the bridesmaid...). I have a book trailer to show (made by one of the schools) but it needs a bit of copyright tweaking so that will have to wait until the next post!

• RNA Conference - I went to my very first Romantic Novelists Association Conference and had a most elegant time - it was completely brilliant and I loved meeting up with so many friends, especially the very lovely Cally Taylor.

• Stunt Bunny: Rabbit Racer was published in August - Harriet comes up against a new rival on Superpets! - Tornado Taz, the world's first agility cat. The usual suspects cheer Harriet on but there's a familiar enemy lurking in the background...

• All change, please! - August also saw us moving house and we're now in leafy Hertfordshire, instead of East London. So far so good but I still haven't unpacked all my books.

• Lucy Goes Dutch - My So-Called Afterlife hit the Netherlands, titled Het Geestige Leven Van Lucy Shaw. I tried my hand at a bit of Dutch - let's just say I'm not exactly fluent!

• National Short Story Week - I recorded a podcast with Chris Priestley, Joe Craig and Jon Mayhew, hosted by the brilliant Sue Cook. It should be online in early October so if you have a burning desire to hear my slightly squeaky voice, you'll be able to fulfil that ambition :)

And that about brings us up to speed. The fourth Stunt Bunny book, Medal Mayhem, is in the bag (out Feb 2012) and I'm working on a couple of new projects. More news here soon - hopefully, it won't be such a long gap before I post again!