Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards 2017

Marion Adams and Sarah Leigh-Wills win Moonbeam Award for “Go To Sleep“

There’s really nothing quite like being considered for an award, and there’s certainly nothing like getting a prize!

When you’re a writer, or an illustrator, or editor, or anything creative, sometimes it can feel like you’re working alone all the time. Writing a book takes up a huge amount of time and energy, and is more often than not, undertaken alone and without any support. Whilst your housemates/husband/wife/partner/dog can make you a cup of tea or come in for a cuddle (get yourself a dog that can do both, people) it doesn’t quite finish your novel, or write the last chapter. For that matter, it doesn’t even write the first chapter, and that’s sometimes the hardest one!

So I think we can all agree that finishing a book in the first place is quite an achievement. Days on end in a room alone, with just your laptop or notebook for company, and hours of agonising over one word over another can be justly rewarded when, joy of joys, it’s finished! Then begins the long, laborious process of editing. If you’ve never written your own story and read it back before, have a go. Or, even just finish a book and start reading it again, really slowly. Then again. And again. It’s not the most exciting process and it isn’t something that’s an easy task.

So, the book is written, the edits are done and you’ve managed to find someone to publish it. You’ve also found a great illustrator (*shines buttons*) and you’re ready to launch your words into the public sphere! How will they take it? Will they like it? Will everyone laugh at me? Have I spelled anything wrong, even after reading my story a billion and one times? (Just as a side note, I wouldn’t recommend reading your own, or any, story a billion and one times. I don’t even know how the maths would work on that, but don’t make it a goal in your writing life!) But there it is, sitting on the shelves at the local book shop, or smiling at you from the digital shelves of Amazon. You’ve written, you’ve worked, you’ve probably cried. There have been many cups of tea ingested, and possibly the odd snifter of something a little stronger. Then the reviews start to come in, if you’re really lucky. All those months of work and hot beverages have culminated in one person (probably on the internet) who isn’t a family member telling you what they think of your book. They love it! It’s passed the test of the random stranger! Then the next one, and the next. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a few favourable reviews.

 

Winning Awards

But winning awards? After all this has happened, someone then hands you a medal or a trophy? Everyone loves a prize at the best of times, but when it’s for a book you’ve written yourself with your own hands then it really does take on a whole new meaning! So we take great pleasure in congratulating Marion Adams on her win, and for being able to help her to live her author-y dream. Find out all about “Go To Sleep” here, and make sure to get your hands on this AWARD-WINNING book!

 

 

 

Go To Sleep

Tansy the sheep can’t go to sleep. She’s forgotten how to do it! But when she follows the barn owl’s advice and starts counting sheep, she realises that there is something wrong …

A delightful bedtime story with a humorous twist that children will love!