I’m such a spasmodic blogger. I do try from time to time. Either way, it’s great to have something new to say. I’m pretty thrilled to be on the shortlist for the 2023 Text Prize for Young Adults and Children’s Writing for my YA fantasy novel Una and the Many Worlds of Dream. This has been a long-haul project. It’s embarrassing to think of how many drafts the book has gone through. As I have said to writing students in the past – most writing is simply re-writing. And it certainly has been in this case. But fun, too. What a luxury to build a world, and then refine it bit by bit. I have learned so much from the process of wrangling prose to scoot along without losing a sense of poetry.
What’s the book about? Here’s the teaser:
The Ash Pits is the ‘making’ world of the Many Worlds of Dream, where captive children sift the dust of the Ancestors for mysterious treasures. Trapped among them is Una, lonely and angry. She doesn’t know where she came from. And she doesn’t know why she’s here. Her one great love is Hal, a sick boy whom she considers under her protection. Then Hal is killed – or is he? – and it’s probably her fault. What if the tiny red ruby she has hidden could magic him back? …. Una and the Many Worlds of Dreams is a YA fantasy novel of just over 80,000 words for mid-teen readers. It addresses themes of courage, destiny, relationship, and the nature of being through a rescue adventure across multifarious worlds.
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