Authors Electric

Who doesn't love a good whodunnit​​? I'm quite a fan of crime books, so back in the year 2000 I was pleased when Scholastic Children's books commissioned me to write four murder mystery books for kids.  They were to be Sealed Mysteries, with the last chapter as a pull-out section, that could be tucked back inside itself. It was a new concept as far as I know, and probably one that no one else has re-done. I guess that sales didn't meet their expectations, as the fourth book in the series got as far as the proof stages and the cover all designed but sadly never made it into print. Although not a financial success, I know that readers have enjoyed them, and when I do school visits these days, present day youngsters still find it a really quirky and novel idea that they seem to like. About a year or so ago, a young woman brought her toddler into the photographic studio I share – and where some of my books are on display. She spotted Fishing fo...

I enjoyed Julia's post on Monday about crime writer Margery Allingham. Although I've heard of her, I admit that I haven't read any of her books – but I'll be rectifying that before too long, hopefully. I do enjoy crime novels, and was happy to be commissioned by Scholastic Children's Books  way back to write four Sealed Mysteries, which all had to be murder mysteries – plus a murder story in an anthology called 13 Murder Mysteries. The Sealed Mysteries in particular took a lot of plotting and planning – probably as much as a villain might do if he was hoping to get away with the perfect murder. The stories were most definitely whodunnits and everything had to tie up, alibis and motives at the ready!   Last year I brought the books out as ebooks, giving them a new series name Little Tyke Murder Mysteries. My granddaughter, Megan (well a cartoon version of her) became my Little Tyke logo. My Little Tyke logo granddau...