My daughter has been reading the second draft of my latest kids’ story and all I can hear is laughter. This is a good sign, I hope.

In writing stories, especially children’s, there are some basic rules you are supposed to follow, be a control freak about length, the main character should always win and many more.

With this story I seem to have broken a few of them.

It’s a bit too long (I will try to cull it a bit further during editing) and my main character (protagonist) is actually the villain of the story! Everything he does seems to go wrong, and nothing works out for him. The so-called hero (antagonist) of the story does nothing in particular to earn the title, he just always seems to be in the right place at the wrong time.

I may be breaking the rules, but I love this character! He’s a bit horrible, selfish, and rude, and frankly quite hopeless but lots of fun.

If you like animals and pirates I’m on the lookout for a couple of further Beta Readers. If you have/know a child in the 7 – 10 year old range who would like to be a Beta Reader (read the story and provide feedback), then send me a message through the contact me page or you can PM me via my Facebook or Instagram page.

Happy Reading! x x