My goodness me it’s been a busy week in the world of ‘Whimsy Wood’! I’ve not had 1, not 2, but 3 schools request that my ‘Whimsy Wood’ series and I come visit them in the next month! On Thursday September the 25th, I shall be visiting Sutterton Fourfields C of E primary school and Swineshead St.Mary’s C of E primary school. I’ll be reading my 4th Whimsy Wood book, ‘Posie Pixie And The Fireworks Party’, to their KS1 children and we’ll be having book signings afterwards! On Tuesday October the 14th, I’ll be taking the morning assembly at Easton Royal Academy, Pewsey. I’m sure all these clever children will have some pretty brilliant questions to ask me and hopefully my ‘Whimsy Wood’ series and I will ignite their imaginations and create a love of nature. In preparation for these visits, Abela Publishing has now added complimentary colouring-in sheets on their website for parents, teachers and other such grown-up folk to download! Since I like sharing, please see the link below that will take you to these free (yes FREE!!) sheets!

http://abelapublishing.com/whimsy-wood-complimentary-colouring-in-sheets_p28915758.htm

Back in ‘Whimsy Wood’ itself, well it’s a constant hive of activity! ‘Humbug Hedgehog’ is busy foraging for worms, ‘Sonny Shrew’ is fiddling with a wonky wheel on his skateboard and ‘Mrs Spottisdowne the sparrow’ is up to her black beady eyes in sparkly silver thread, as she’s taking the hem up on ‘Violet Vole’s’ skirt! ‘Mrs Spottisdowne the sparrow’ is ‘Whimsy Wood’s’ Scottish seamstress, incase you were wondering! Since book 2, ‘Posie Pixie And The Lost Matchbox’, is written for this currently sunny month of September, I’ll share (I know, I really am too kind!) an extract with you from this book…..

‘Outside, the autumn sun was shining and the leaves on the woodland trees were changing from green to cherry reds and golden yellows. A choir of young chaffinches were practising their autumn songs and if you looked closely, you could just see the twitching whiskers, or disappearing tails of Mr and Mrs Dusty the dormice and their little ones.

The ivy in ‘Whimsy Wood’ that’s currently flowering. These flowers provide nectar for wasps and other autumnal flying insects.

“It’s wonderful living here,” thought Posie to herself, as she skipped through Whimsy Wood admiring the ivy and gorse that were now in flower.’….

On that heavenly note, I shall leave you to mull over where Posie Pixie might be off to in Whimsy Wood and if you’d like to see more of this 2nd book, ‘Posie Pixie And The Lost Matchbox’, please see the link below where it’s featured currently on the ‘Being Author’ website. Alternatively, you can click on the green link on the right of this page for ‘book 2 on Abela Publishing’.

http://www.beingauthor.com/2014/09/sarah-hill.html

Wishing you all a wonderfully whimsical Wednesday! 🙂

“The marvellous what?” I hear you ask! Well quite! I stumbled across this incredibly interesting fungus over a year or so ago, when I was researching book 14 from my ‘Whimsy Wood’ children’s series . I often have a good old nosey through various woodland websites, to see what flora and fauna are out and about in a UK wood, for the particular month I am writing about you see. Alongside drinking copious cups of coffee and trying to look ‘terribly busy’! Anyway, book 14 is about the happenings within ‘Whimsy Wood’ for the scrumptious month of September. Once I’d discovered the charming candlesnuff fungus (xylaria hypoxylon, if we’re going to get all technical!) what else could I possibly write about, than this intriguing and fabulously named fungus?! So with my imagination ignited, I put pen to paper and before I knew it, ‘Fearne Fairy And The Candlesnuff Camp’ had been created, written and I was ‘moonwalking’ across the office floor with sheer delight and excitement!

Candlesnuff fungus growing on dead deciduous wood, which is where it’s happiest!

I mean just look at it, with its snuffed candle wick appearance! I’m starting to wonder if this was where the idea for the commonly used ‘glo-sticks’ came from! In fact, another similarity this fungus has with our party accessory, the glo-stick’, is that it’s rather rubbery and you can actually bend it without breaking it! There’s a handy fact for you to share at parties! Oh and before I go on to spill some inside information about my series, I’d better be responsible and inform you, that although this fungus is not poisonous, it is entirely inedible! Probably tastes like a ‘glo-stick’ too!!

Now, to folk who are aware of my ‘Whimsy Wood’ children’s series, the appearance of a certain ‘Fearne Fairy’ will be somewhat of a surprise! This is because wee ‘Posie Pixie’ is the main character in the 1st seven books (which makes up the 1st set) in my series. Once we reach book 8 (the start of the 2nd set of seven books) ‘Posie’ and her jingling, tinkling bluebell hat, get to have a rest and lie down in a dark room from all the excitement of her adventures in ‘Whimsy Wood’! Along with ‘Fearne Fairy’, you’ll also get to meet ‘Mustard the Magpie Moth’ (Fearne’s best friend) and ‘Dr Tustle the Tawny Owl’. ‘Dr Tustle’ is of course the woodland’s resident doctor and is a rather serious, older member of the ‘Whimsy Wood’ community. He makes his 1st appearance in book 7, ‘Posie Pixie And The Pancakes’ (the last book in the 1st set and written for the month of February!) This will be released early Spring-time next year.

I fear I have given away a lot of inside secrets this week and before I share anymore, I’d best away and attempt to ‘look busy’ somewhere else! If you want to keep up to date with the latest illustrations, book launches and school visits, then pop over to the Whimsy Wood Facebook page and ‘like’ us, thank you 😉 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Whimsy-Wood-Series/476339045765043?ref=hl

Wishing you all a Whimsical Wednesday!