by Michele Clark McConnochie | Jun 25, 2022 | Indie Publishing, The Dralfynia Sagas, Writing for Children and Young Adults
A while ago I wrote a blog about why I loved the character of Witchy Wu, who is one of the villains in the Sabrina Summers trilogy. Today I am writing about the inspiration behind one of the other villains, Prince Donaldo. This larger-than-life character is borrowed...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Jan 10, 2022 | Uncategorized
I know people haven’t loved 2021, but it was an OK year for me anyway! Maybe Hollywood didn’t come knocking on my door to make a movie out of my books; maybe I didn’t win the lottery but I had plenty to be grateful for, starting with the fact that I...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Jun 12, 2021 | Big Boots, Indie Publishing, Travel Writing, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing for Children and Young Adults
Last weekend I went to the ballet with a very inspiring friend. We were chatting about my fairly-new full-time and full-on job and she asked how I was managing to keep up with my writing. “Do you just wait for the weekend?” she said. The answer, of course,...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Oct 22, 2020 | Uncategorized
What is it about literary festivals that excite both readers and writers alike? From a reader’s perspective, I love hearing the stories behind the stories. It is a chance to get to know what inspires people to write, what inspired a particular book or character, and...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Feb 19, 2020 | Writing for Children and Young Adults
I’m really excited to be working with a group of Rapaki Rangers (a Girl Guide division in Christchurch, New Zealand) this Saturday. They are running a girl-led event which they have called “Girl Esteem” and their aims are to help girl guides: • Be balanced – To...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Jan 30, 2020 | The Dralfynia Sagas, Writing, Writing for Children and Young Adults
I first joined the Brownies when I was 7 or 8 years old, when my father was stationed in West Berlin in what was then West Germany. I moved onto the Girl Guides both there and in Telford, England. I wasn’t the most dedicated, but even decades later, I can still...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Dec 3, 2019 | Writing
As a children’s author, I think it’s important to celebrate all aspects of children’s literature, including their own, and to find out from the horse’s mouth (so to speak), what matters to them. Over the past couple of years, I have run several story-writing...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Sep 17, 2019 | Cats, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing for Children and Young Adults
When I first went freelance a few years ago, I was grateful for the chance to work stress-free and uninterrupted. I reckoned without my two rescue cats – Cleo and Twinkle. Here is a typical day. 6:15am Alarm. Writer gets up to make tea. Cleo and Twinkle rush to show...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Mar 18, 2018 | Writing
One of the fabulous things about being published by Morgan James is the sense of community between the company’s authors. Cindy Mazzaferro, author of “Powerful Beyond Measure” kindly reached out and got in touch, and I’ve spent time the last week not only reading her...
by Michele Clark McConnochie | Mar 8, 2018 | Writing for Children and Young Adults
When I first started teaching, back in the 1990s, I mainly taught teenagers. It used to grieve me to see so many young women behaving as they and their futures and careers were less important than those of the boyfriends they so desperately wanted. Those experiences...
