A book for girls… The question everyone asks is: Where do writers get their ideas from?
         Aha! We steal them.
         ‘A girl,’ a friend said, ‘should reinvent herself every year.’
         And that’s the start of this story.
         The heroine, Lana Green, is really Nice; pretty, with fair hair and a list of things she’s nervous about – like cotton wool and big dogs. She earns her living organising cookery parties for children’s birthdays – she’s got quite a following.
         Unfortunately, when Travis Tressler’s party goes all wrong, his mother Frances makes sure that everyone knows it. She’s that sort of woman – you don’t want to get on the wrong side of her.
         When people start cancelling, Lana has no choice but to fire herself and invent Zena Delaney. Strange name, I know, but at the time, she was thinking on her feet.
         She dyes her hair red, restyles her wardrobe and buys a pack of Psychogame cards so that she can change her personality, too.
         Which makes it a bit awkward when Travis’s Godfather Nick Wilder tries to track Lana down.
         Will he fall in love with Zena instead? Will Zena survive Nick’s thrill-seeking lifestyle? Will they ever find Lana alive? I don’t know yet.        
…and books for children… Ava Jones and the Severed Head In the summer, an old druid told me a secret that he forgot to keep. It was about a severed head.
         Once a secret like that gets out, everyone wants to be a part of it. For Tal and me, it was finders keepers. Which meant we had to get there first.
         It was nearly the last thing we ever did.
         Do you want to know how to change the future? Read this book. Don’t let the druid put you off. You can never judge a book by its cover.
         Ava Jones and the Cauldron of Regeneration What if you found a cauldron that could bring the dead to life? Bad idea, right?
         James Dodd’s dad didn’t think so. And when I accidentally killed my best friend’s pet, I agreed.
         But when the graves in the churchyard started being dug up, it all got a bit out of hand.
         If James had been bad in life, in death he was –
         Dead scary. Now read the opening scene of Ava Jones and the Cauldron of Regeneration My mobile phone rang in the middle of the night.
         Half asleep, I answered it and a man said,
         ‘Ava, this is Idrys.’
         I sat up in bed and checked called ID. It said Out of Area. That figured. ‘Idrys, you’re dead,’ I protested.
         He chuckled, and his voice had birdsong in it. ‘Do I sound dead?’
         I didn’t answer.  I’d been to his funeral. I’d seen his coffin going into the grave so I knew he was, no matter how lively he sounded. ‘So what’s up?’ I asked warily, pushing my pillow behind my head. This was all my dad’s fault. It’s a mistake burying a dead guy with a brand new Motorola – I mean, obviously he’s going to want to use it.
         ‘There’s a problem,’ he sighed. ‘James Dodd was supposed to get here three moons ago. He hasn’t arrived.’
         The skin on my arms prickled and I pulled my duvet under my chin. James Dodd blew himself up in the summer and nearly took me with him. I didn’t like the idea he was still hanging around. ‘How long does it normally take people to get there?’
         ‘Three nights,’ Idrys said.
         ‘And it’s been three months?’ I heard the bed creak in my dad’s room and I lowered my voice. ‘Idrys, maybe he’s not coming to your place,’ I said hopefully. ‘Maybe he’s gone straight to Hell.’
         Idrys laughed and there was some other sound mixed up in it, pebbles rolling on a beach.
         ‘Oh, Ava! The truth is, someone’s stopping him from getting here.’
         ‘Who?’
         ‘That’s what you have to find out,’ Idrys said.
         Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t happy that James blew himself up, but when he did, I felt safe. Even when I cried about it, I felt safe.
         Sitting in my bed in the dark, I didn’t feel safe any more. I switched my bedside light on, scared I’d find him in my room, holding himself together with his bloody stumps.
         The room was empty. But my door was slightly open and I didn’t know what was listening in the hall in the dark.
         ‘Idrys,’ I whispered, ‘what are we going to do?’
         ‘You’ve got to find him,’ Idrys said, ‘and make him see it’s time to leave.’
         ‘What? How can I talk to a dead guy?’
        ‘Just like this; it’s not that difficult, is it?’ Idrys said irritably, and hung up. Want to read more of this story? Let me know!