Linda's News

Ozzie

Blossom

Bracken

Pinky

Candy & Blossom

Linda and Simba Hi everyone

Well, it's been a very busy and exciting year so far! I have moved house and been writing a new series called Tiny Pony Friends for younger readers (it's all about magic and ponies) as well as continuing to write Mermaid Academy with my lovely friend, Julie Sykes (illustrated by Lucy Truman) and Star Friends (illustrated by Kim Barnes).

I've also been really enjoying watching all the episodes of the TV show of Unicorn Academy, made by Spinmaster and Netflix. It's been fascinating to see how the creative team at Spinmaster have turned the series of books into an animated TV show, there are some differences to the storylines of the books, but Julie and I are both thrilled with the result. We love all the TV characters - particularly the baby unicorns who are just SO cute. It's been a lot of fun to see Unicorn Academy toys and other merchandise being sold and to watch clips of various Unicorn Academy events happening in toy stores around the world. We feel very, very lucky and if you watch the series, we hope you love it too!

Julie and I are busy writing more Mermaid Academy books together. It's about young mermaids and dolphins training together to learn how to protect their beautiful underwater world, finding out about the magic they have, bonding with each other and having lots of adventures. The underwater world is such an amazing place, it's been fascinating researching different environments from tropical reefs to underwater volcanoes to mangrove swamps - and then adding a smattering of sparkles and magic of course!

I've also been working on more Star Friends books. At the moment, there will be 16 books in total. I'm loving thinking up new adventures for Maia, Ionie, Sita, Lottie and Maddie (if you're reading the American versions published by Tiger Tales rather than the UK versions published by Little Tiger/Stripes you'll know the characters as Mia, Violet, Sita, Lexi and Maddie). I do get some confused emails from readers who have started reading the American books and then have read a UK book and found the characters suddenly seem to have different names and the books are set in England not America. The covers are almost identical so it can be very hard to tell the difference unless you read the blurb on the back and see the characters' names are different or look at who the publisher is. If you are one of my readers who has been confused in this way then I really do apologise! I promise the stories are exactly the same but I know it must seem VERY strange for characters' names to change halfway through a series.

And finally, I am working on a new series called Tiny Pony Friends about two very lucky nine-year-old girls who are given magical toy ponies who take them to Pony Land. The girls - Harper and Poppy - have lots of fun adventures protecting the magical ponies there from Count Drefan's evil plans. It is a series for 4-8 year olds and is beautifully illustrated by Kristen Humphrey.

So, as you can see, I've been very busy! When I'm not writing, I'm usually walking, playing and cuddling our three dogs (Tibetan Terriers, Blossom and Bracken and cockapoo, Candy) and helping my eldest daughter with her horses, Pinky and Ozzie. Ozzie looks like a unicorn, he is so pretty! He is still young and just getting used to being ridden. Pinky is an endurance horse and she and my daughter ride for miles at a time. I spend a lot of weekends helping them at endurance rides, throwing water over them both to cool them down, grooming, tack cleaning and providing food for them both. When I'm not doing any of those things, I love reading and spending time with my friends and the other human members of my family.

Happy reading everyone!

Love Linda xxx

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