I’m off to a great start with my new eight book series, Olympia. Set in ancient Olympia, it explores the life and times of the ancient Olympic Games through the eyes of my young hero, Ollie, whose dad runs the gymnasium.

I worked it all out about eighteen months ago. Now the decks are clear and the project is not only underway, it’s on schedule – so far!

I’ve written the first story, Run like the Wind and – hooray! – my editor, Sarah, likes it a lot. Should I be surprised? Well, I was really pleased with the story, but working on your own in a shed at the bottom of the garden, you can lose touch with reality! It’s so good to know your editor likes your work and that the project is on the right rails.

Last year, I sent my first Axel Storm story in and received a stony silence. My previous editor had rewritten my synopsis and hadn’t told me before she left – so my new editor was expecting something quite different! We got there in the end, but it was hard work, changing my initial ideas to fit the new format.

I’ve finished the cover roughs too. The cover rough for Deadly Target is above. I have a new designer working on them as I write. I came up with a logo idea and I’m dying to see what the cover ideas will look like. I’ll probably post them when we have finalised them.

Keen followers of my artwork will notice that Ollie does not have the ping pong ball eyes that I have always drawn before! I’m being really brave and I’m going to try and draw all the human characters with simple, dot eyes.

I need to make the children look a bit older than they normally are in my books, and the ping pong eyes tend to make them look much younger. Also, I suppose these stories are a little more serious and so I feel they should be a little less cartoony. Does that make sense?

Meantime, back to the keyboard – seven more stories to write and a schedule to meet!