With a day job as a journalist and a second string as a novelist, it had never crossed my mind in a million years to write a children’s book. But out of the blue, after devouring everything by authors like Jacqueline Wilson, Meg Cabot and Celia Rees, my daughter complained she didn’t have anything to read. “Why don’t you write a book for me?” she asked. I’d only written books for grown-ups before but what the hell, I decided to have a go.

 

Over the next few months I spent every spare moment working on The Rise and Shine Saturday Show. I wanted the book to be a contemporary version of Pamela Brown’s wonderful The Swish of the Curtain, the story of a group of stage-struck children who launch their own theatre company. I adore The X-Factor too, so I brought the idea up to date by using a showbiz competition as the novel’s backdrop. My daughter acted as my music and wardrobe adviser – “Zaza wouldn’t wear that,” she’d say crushingly when she cast her eye over the latest instalment. She laughed her head off when I described Cheryl Cole as my heroine’s heroine.

 

My agent liked the book and sent it off to publishers. The only trouble was that one had an author working in a similar genre, another wasn’t keen on talent contests, and so it went on. But the bottom line was that my daughter and her friends loved it. So did my mum, who read it before she became ill. After she died I decided to take matters into my own hands and publish it myself.

 

My office filled up with cover illustrations from talented young art students, examples of different typefaces and assorted cuttings about self-publishing – and yes, I got there in the end. The Rise and Shine Saturday Show sold well (it’s available on Amazon), got great reviews and resulted in some lovely letters from my nine to twelve year old readers. Now my daughter’s nagging me to write a sequel…