Having recently re-edited and updated ABE or, Amy Diver and Alien Big Cat, a children’s novel I wrote some years ago, I’m about to publish it on Amazon KDP. Also, I’m going to write to a few agents and publishers to try and get a more orthodox book deal. The problem with my two adult books, The Singer-Songwriter’s Last Stand and, recently, The Key to a Happy Life, is that they don’t fit neatly into the usual categories or genres. (As don’t my children’s song books.) I’m sure readers aren’t bothered – they just want a good entertaining read – but the gate-keepers are more conservative. So, I guess if I want my work in Waterstones, etc, I’ll have to comply.

ABE, by the way, is about a ten year old girl who becomes able to communicate (note – not talk) with animals following a riding accident where she received a head injury. She is later approached by an ABC, or alien big cat, who enlists her to uncover the activities of a criminal who has been importing endangered and rare species into the country. The book also includes short accounts of the lives of two leading animal characters – Abe, a black panther or leopard, and George, a lowland gorilla.

As a matter of fact, the gorilla’s story came first. It was one of a number of short tales written to accompany a CD of animal songs, but the gorilla’s one just grew. I then became interested in the whole issue of wildlife crime and conservation, etc. Sightings of large wild cats were in the news and I realised were connected to the same issue having often escaped from illegal or inconvenient captivity (so it is often speculated). The heroine, blonde and blue-eyed little Amy, was modelled on an ex-pupil, though her story is, obviously, fiction.