Looking for information on my books? How to invite me to visit or just having a look around? Whatever your reason for being here I hope you enjoy it and come back again soon.

LATEST NEWS!!

My new book WRITING FOR CHILDREN  (pub A & C Black) is out NOW for all aspiring and newly published writers.

Be one of the first to see  the COVER of my latest teenage novel SPIDER   (published at the end of September 2008)  You can see it on the BOOK page under NEW BOOKS

Look on the MY EVENTS page to see where I am appearing in the next few months

Have a look at http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com  and read some of the ramblings of some scattered authors

I am delighted to announce the arrival of my latest book

WRITING FOR CHILDREN. Published by A & C Black For the aspiring and also the newly published writer who wants to write for this challenging market.

Summer is in full swing and once again it is almost time for the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Charlotte square in Edinburgh is one of my favourite places to be during August, just to wander around the book tents, or meeting friends and the chance to meet and listen to lots of authors speak about the books they have written and are passionate about.

for more information about my Book Festival events look on the MY EVENTS page.

At the beginning of September I will on the Isle of Islay for the Book Festival there and at the end of September I will be visiting the Wigtown Book Festival In October I will be at the North Lanarkshire Festival of Words.

JUNE/JULY 2008

I spent a lovely day at Milngavie’s first book festival in June and in July a second visit to Balmoral Castle where Sally and I were reading from the latest Hamish McHaggis and the Lost Prince.  We had launched the book there in June with chidlren from local schools in Braemar, Ballater and Crathie and it was great to visit the schools afterwards to see the lovely displays of the  pictures of Hamish which the children had drawn on the launch day.  I was delighted to be invited back to Braemar primary school at the end of term to watch the launch of a wonderful leaflet about their town that the children had worked very hard to produce. It was impressive!

June 08

www.milngaviefestival.org.uk

I will also be reading from the latest Hamish McHaggis book with classes from Atholl Prep and Craigdhu Primary, in the morning .

BALMORAL Launch for new Hamish McHaggis book

Sally and I have just returned from a lovely trip to Aberdeen where we were at Balmoral Castle for a launch event for Hamish McHaggis and the Lost Prince. Classes from Braemar, Ballater and Crathie Primary Schols came along and a great time was had by all.

While we were in Aberdeen we also visited Skene Square Primary School and the lovely staff at Waterstones accompanied us to Albyn School to meet the children there.

Sally and I were in Haddington Library (photo below) for the launch of the latest Hamish book, Hamish McHaggis and the Lost Prince, on 16th May

and on the following Tuesday, 20th May, I was taking part in the West Dumbartonshire Festival of Words.Have a look on the link below for some photos of my talks in Alexandria and Dalmiur Libraries.

Some of the children filled in postcards with their impressions of the visits. You can see these here, too.

http://www.wdcweb.info/onlinestories/literature-festival/report-linda-strachan.htm

Haddington Library launch of Hamish McHaggis and the Lost Prince

Here are some photos of the launch event in Haddington Library on 16th May.

Click on the photos to get a bigger version

Today I saw the first preview copy of the latest Hamish book, Hamish McHaggis and the Lost Prince. Sally and I am preparing for a few events to launch the book and the first in HADDINGTON LIBRARY on the day the book comes out Friday 16th May. It is a free family event so if you are in the area do come along at 2.30pm. Sally and I are also going to be in Borders FORT KINNAIRD Edinburgh on Saturday 24th May at 12.00 and 2pm. I will be reading the new story and Sally will be showing how she draws Hamish. For news of this and other upcoming events come back int he next few days and look on my EVENTS page.

April has been a lovely and quite exciting month. It ended with a lovely trip to Trieste in the north of Italy with two other children’s writers, Rebecca Lisle and Mary Hoffman. We spent a delightful week writing and talking about books and writing and Italy - some of it in Italian!

Just before the trip I had been fulfilling an ambition to take part in a musical. It was with the SMYCMS, a lovely group of very talented people from all walks of life, and the show (RED HOT and COLE a Cole Porter biopic with many of his wonderful songs) ran for 5 days in the Churchill Theatre in Edinburgh and was very well received (and reviewed!)

I also managed to fit in a visit to Mayfield Primary school in Midlothian in April and I was asked back to Aberdeen to visit Cults Primary school for the day, to start off a week of book celebrations that culminated in the opening of their lovely new library.

March was rather hectic. During the week of World Book Day I started it off with a visit to St Bartholomew’s in Coatbridge where I got a lovely welcome and I really enjoyed spending World Book Day with the children of Cunard School in Clydebank.

The following week I was in Macdonald Road Library in Edinburgh as part of the Scottish Book Trust’s Children’s Festival speaking to children from Abbeyhill Primary School.

Later that day I travelled up to Aberdeen to spend the next three days in the city where I Spent a day on the READING BUS at Don Bank Primary school followed by a visit to Gilcomstoun Primary, Kittybrewster Primary school and finally at St Joseph’s which is now a primary school but more than a few years ago it was called Queen’s Cross and that was my first boarding school. It was strange to see all the changes that had been made to the school.

The following day I went deep into the beautiful Aberdeenshire countryside to spend the day visiting Finzean Primary School which is set in the middle of the rolling hills.

I was only home for a couple of days before I set off again, this time to the lovely south coast of Wales to Pwill Primary School. Pwll is close to Swansea and quite delightful. I had a wonderful time there and swapped a few words of Welsh for some Scots phrases!

February has been a strange month so far, a time for taking stock and catching up with all the odd jobs that have been pushed to one side while the three books coming out this year have been finished off. Here are some pictures of Sally and I working on the latest Hamish McHaggis story -The lost Prince.

It is quite an exciting time because I have also been thinking about my next book , a novel for older children. I have only had odd moments to scribble down ideas so far but now I want to get down to doing some research and building up the characters.

I was in North Ayrshire last week where I was running a CPD workshop with Primary school teachers. we worked on ideas for stimulating creative writing in the classroom.

I have also been organising some of the many events that I have coming up in the next few months and also later in the year. It takes quote a lot of time to organise dates and all the details, and of course the travel arrangements, but I enjoy travelling around, seeing new places and meeting new people.

I have been very busy these last few weeks finishing off the latest Hamish McHaggis story HAMISH McHAGGIS AND THE LOST PRINCE, which is published in May this year. I think Sally has done a wonderful cover. It looks fantastic! For a sneak preview have a look on the BOOKS page and click on NEW BOOKS!

The cover of my WRITING FOR CHILDREN book, which is to be published a month later, in June, is also there but it is going to look slightly different than the one we have showing at present, so come back and see if it changes!

I am also VERY excited about my first novel for teenagers SPIDER which is coming out in September. I’ve not seen a cover design for it yet but I will put it up here as soon as I can.

I have a busy schedule for the next few months and in fact the whole year looks like being rather busy and I have been asked to lots of interesting places, which I love! I will be adding to the MY EVENTS page and updating it quite regularly so keep coming back to have a look.

Apologies for anyone who tried to load the website from the www.contactanauthor.co.uk site. There was an error on my page- which was entirely my fault - but it has been corrected now. It is a wonderful site for anyone trying to book an author visit.

If you tried to contact me and couldn’t get through, please try the email address on the contact page which should work. Lesley, my wonderful web designer, is working hard to iron out a few little glitches.

The GALLERY is beginning to fill up but I am going to re organise it and put up some of the pictures of school visits and drawings that I’ve been sent from children whose schools I have visited.

2008 looks like it is going to be a very busy year for me. Now that all the festivities are over I am sorting out my diary for the year and looking forward to some exciting times ahead.

I have three new books being published this year, the publication dates are still to be finalised but in the first part of the year there is a new Hamish McHaggis story
Hamish McHaggis and the Lost Prince

My book on Writing for Children is for anyone who is either starting to write for children or even those who have already had a book published and want to explore the different markets or to find out more about the world of children’s publishing from an author’s point of view.

Later in the early autumn Spider my novel for teenagers comes out.

Look out for more information on these very soon.

I have been asked to visit schools and festivals in all parts of the country and I will be putting more information about these very soon, so come back to find out more. There are also new pictures in my gallery and more to come and there is a report on one of my author visits by Amanda Minns of Learning Teaching Scotland on the My Events page, scroll down to read this one .