About Andrea

As you can see from my website, I'm an author and poet with over 25 books published in the UK plus many foreign editions translated into over 10 languages.  For kids I've written picture books, young fiction, school reader fiction, a Roald Dahl biography and a story in animated CD Digitext (Danger Monsters Aliens! published by Pearson) and lots of kids' poetry. My wacky, funny poems for kids are published in Words to Whisper. Words to Shout which made the Blue Peter Award shortlist, several World Book Day Poetry books and over 100 anthologies published by Macmillan, OUP, Hodder, Scholastic, Folens, HarperCollins, Nelson Thornes and Belitha and most recently a wonderful collection called Shouting at the Ocean published by Hands Up Books. 

I've also written 7 books for 'grown-ups' Passing Psychometric Tests, Psychometric Tests for Graduates, Practice Psychometrics and Management Level Psychometric & Assessment Centre Tests which are all about psychometric tests (the type companies use to recruit staff), then there is the latest: No-Limit Texas Hold'em for Winners  which is about poker. Older books include Cheque's in the Post! (a business book on credit management) and another career book called Landing Your First Job.

If you check out my Freelance Writing page you'll see I've also written for Tesco, BT, Business Link, Chamber of Commerce, Halifax, British Gas and many other business, consumer and health publishers, magazines, newspapers and websites around the world. 

No-Limit Texas Hold'em for Winners  co-authored by Dan Shavick was on the Blackwells READ THIS recommended list (which also includes Philip Pullman, Bill Bryson, Richard Dawkins, Margaret Attwood, Martin Amis etc) and is an Amazon bestseller. It's aimed at beginners and improvers playing the most popular poker game in town (and online), namely, no-limit Texas Hold'em. Read Amazon reviews, see the contents list and find out why we wrote the book here. With 368 pages it's the longest book I've ever written. 

My personalised fairy tale book, The King Who Lives Next Door,  sold in aid of the charity NSPCC is no longer available - the campaign has come to an end, sadly.  But I'm delighted to have written a book for the charity, and it was cool seeing my book advertised on packets of Hovis bread!   The illustrator is the wonderful Kate Shannon  - http://homepage.tinet.ie/~shannondarby/ 

Speaking of freelance writing, my health booklet, Look After Your Heart available from Tesco in-store pharmacies was recommended by TV doctor Hilary Jones on 28 radio stations and Breakfast TV as the definitive guide! 

I'm also now taking Spring 2010 school visit bookings for kids from Reception to Secondary.  If you're a teacher or a librarian, find out more about my school visits here.  You can also read poems produced during one of my recent school visits here. 

Grandma was Eaten by a Shark! is still selling well. You should be able to go to your local library now and borrow or order a copy. All good bookshops will happily order it for you too, and Amazon also stocks it. 

And of course, I never stop writing poetry for kids. Read some of my poems here, and also poems from children and teenagers around the world here. I'm pleased to say both Google and Yahoo search engines rank my site as top for teenage poetry!

Here is some general info about the way I work:

Writing for adults  

Career books and business writing usually involve a lot of research, so however much I know about a subject, I still need to research, talk to loads of other experts, and gather enough material, which can sometimes take forever.  Once I'm ready, the first job is to produce a detailed contents list, then the back cover blurb - which the publishers need months before the book actually hits the shops. Then it's time to dive in and write it.

My non-fiction adult books tend to be between 30 - 50 thousand words, which means around 4 months hard slog, typing non-stop every day. And that's fast - many writers take over six months to produce a book that size.

Once it's finished, I always give it to a friend or relative to read - I have several willing volunteers who happily point out all the spelling and grammatical mistakes with great relish, as well as other contacts with specific first hand knowledge of the subject as a final check. Then I email it to the publisher (thank goodness the days of having to print out thousands of pages is over), however that's not the end of the story. The publisher will have their own proof and copy editors read it, there may be illustrations to sort out, an index to produce, and then publicity and promotion to sort out.

Freelance writing is also quite good fun - short but intensive writing jobs. I've written all sorts of stuff: health booklets for Tesco, business reports for the Chamber of Commerce and Business Link, consumer interest articles for magazines...for more info click here.

Children's books

My picture books are generally around 300 - 500 words at the very most - but that doesn't make them any easier to write than adult books. Although it looks simple, picture book fiction is about the hardest there is, for several reasons. Firstly, children are a pretty demanding audience, so the story has to be interesting or exciting or funny all the way through. 

Next, picture books are usually read TO children by parents or grandparents - so grown-ups need to be kept interested too (and of course, they are the ones who will actually choose and buy the book in the first place). Writing for little kids AND their parents at the same time is incredibly difficult. Writing for older children (6-10 year olds) who can read by themselves and choose their own books is far easier.

But, like every other fiction writer on the planet, there are times when I find myself facing a blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike. And waiting...  But when I have something to say, when I feel strongly about a subject...well then the words and ideas seem to burst out.  My 'Truth About Babies' and also 'You'll Soon Grow Alex' are good examples of this - both books seemed to write themselves in just a few days.

Once a children's book has been accepted by a publisher, there is usually a very long wait before it actually appears in the shops. The Truth About Babies took 5 years from idea to real live book! Stop Elephant Stop! was accepted in July 2001 but wasn't published until 2004 - a 3 year wait. A picture book editor once told me that I was far too impatient to be a children's writer, and she was right! One of the reasons I write career books for adults is the speed of the process; you produce a book, and 4 months later it's in the shops! 

For those of you who would like to be published, I have a page of writing tips here.

Poetry

Writing poems that children can relate to and enjoy is a challenge and a very enjoyable one. You can read lots of my poems on this website here, and you can read poems by web visitors on my Teenage Poems page and my Young Poets page. There are now hundreds of poems to enjoy, written by children and teenagers from all over the world. NEW! Read poems produced during one of Andrea's recent school visits here
And if you go to Links for writers and poets you'll see links to other sites where you can also send your poems. 

Although my poems are published in lots of different anthologies, Grandma Was Eaten By A Shark! is my first main collection. You can read more about it on my Grandma page, and you can buy the book from Amazon or your local bookshop. It should be in your local library too.  

To Rhyme or not?
When it comes to poetry, I prefer rhyme.  Anyone can write a bit of prose and separate it into short lines to make it look like a poem - where's the skill in that? But clever, meaningful rhymes are extremely difficult to write well, take a long time to produce and are a real challenge. Rhyme isn't just for kids either. Shakespeare's rhymes fit so seamlessly and they are so subtle you might not even realise they're there. He certainly didn't pick the first word he found in a rhyming dictionary!

Other stuff

Every day I like to connect with other writer friends on the web. Writing is a lonely business and it's nice to talk to like-minded people who understand the highs and lows of the job. Sometimes answering all the emails (and killing the spams) takes ages, and then there's feeding the website monster....which I'm doing right now. 

Andrea            Date: February 13, 2010  

Below is a picture taken on National Book Day with some lovely children from the High Beeches Junior School in Hertfordshire, to promote the National Home Library Scheme.

SITE MAP to help you navigate around my site