Write what you WANT to know

“The one thing that makes writing a better pastime than reading is that you can make things turn out the way you want in the end!” – Geraldine McCaughrean

Born on this date in 1951, British children's novelist McCaughrean has had a fantastic career in “making things turn out just right” at the end of almost everything she’s written, including the “official” sequel to Peter Pan – Peter Pan in Scarlet.

A multiple award winner for her works, including being Britain’s nominee for the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international award for authors of children’s works, McCaughrean has written more than 160 books, including many re-tellings of Classic tales.  Her work has been translated into 45 languages.                

                           She’s the only writer to win the prestigious Whitbread Children’s Book Award 3 times, for her works A Little Lower than the Angels (1987), Gold Dust (1993) and Not the End of the World (2004).    She claims that what makes her love writing is the desire to escape from an unsatisfactory world. Her motto is:  Do not write about what you know, write about what you want to know.

 “Writing is writing to me. I'm incapable of saying no to any writing job, so I've done everything - historical fiction, myths, fairy tales, anything that anybody expresses any interest in me writing, I'll write,” she said.  “It's the same reason I used to read as a child: I like going somewhere else and being someone else.”

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