MARITSA, MIRACLE THEATRE and MEGA-BUCKS by Enid Richemont

Recently I've had some exciting news about my Young Adult novel, FOR MARITSA WITH LOVE, which was first published by Simon & Schuster in 2001, but which went out of print because it didn't make the mega-bucks required by the USA. Although David and I re-published quite a number of my out of print children's books as ebooks, I held back on MARITSA. It had attracted film offers, including one significant one, but film offers have a nasty tendency to fizzle out, usually from lack of funding. I still do have a company expressing interest, so it might still happen.

Now an enterprising new publisher is proposing to take it on, both as an ebook and print on demand, and since I know its owner and like the way she's going, I think I may run with it - but not without my agent, the lovely Sophie Hicks, on board. Mega-bucks are irrelevant (although - who knows? - they might yet happen). We just want this book read.

Author, and friend, Frances Thomas also wants her work read, and deservedly so. At present, she's working on a trilogy based on some of the women in Homer's Odessey, and aimed at Young Adults. I'm over halfway through the first - HELEN'S DAUGHTER - and if this is anything to go by, I shall be reading all three. The cover design for this one is exceptional.

Miracle Theatre in Cornwall has opened its summer season with a production of 'THE TEMPEST', re-structured, if I know Miracle (and I do!) in ways that Will Shakespeare might never have thought of, and with costumes and sets by my amazing daughter, Jude, and her partner, Alan. Please forgive me for showing her off, but I'm so proud of her.

Once again, a curious little chain of events has come out of an Early Reader book I've been working on. It's for a series called Twisty Tales, published by Franklin Watts, and the challenge was to re-tell and 'twist' a selection of traditional stories. One of mine was the story of the enormous pancake, and considering how I might place it in a current setting, I thought chefs/high-rise buildings, because a couple of close friends recently went to eat in the Shard. In my version of the tale, the enormous pancake was tossed out of the window and fell on the head of a passing model, who was being photographed. Wow! What a hat!

That very evening, in my copy of the London Evening Standard, there was an image of a model wearing an enormous floppy hat, just like my pancake. I emailed my editor, joking that we might sue! The following day, a friend came round to tell me that her daughter, who's a fashion student, had designed the clothes in the article, and had actually won a major fashion award as a result. She works part-time in Paris, and hers is a name to remember if you're into fashion - it's Victoria Smith. Both she, and my pancake, might be going places.

And finally... from time to time I've played with the idea of changing my name, but not too radically, as I have a writing track record. This time, I considered, quite seriously, simply adding the initial letter of my middle name (Anne) and turning it into 'Enida', which sounded rather exotic, so I googled it to see if there were any real 'Enidas' out there, and yes, there are. They turn out to be a genus of marine gastropods, or sea snails. Erm....