'Dear Mira' diaries...

It's been lovely to receive summer post cards, notes and emails from readers. It seems that 'Jasmine Skies' has been summer reading for many of you. I was particularly touched that one reader was inspired to write a  'Dear Mira' diary, confiding  her feelings and thoughts of travelling in India with Mira. She took a copy of 'Jasmine Skies' with her!

Macmillan Children's Books were so impressed with Chloe Spinks' 'Dear Mira' diary that they have published it on their site and launched a competition for aspiring authors to write about their summer travels, with the promise that Mira will write a reply to the winning entry!

You don't have to have travelled far from home at all to enter!  Guess where this photo was taken...

 

... The Lake District where my next book is set. Look out for this sunset in 'Kite Spirit.'

  

At talks and festivals people ask 'Where do you find your inspiration?' I answer... 'In the real world, in my imaginary world and in memory.'

 

I kept a travel journal when I went to Kolkata as a child and in some scenes in 'Jasmine Skies' I have drawn on moments from my own journal. The baby hand through the taxi window on page 104 of 'Jasmine Skies' is one of my most potent childhood memories. Click on the link below to enter the competition.

http://www.mykindabook.com/blogs/2012/8/Dear-Mira-Competition-for-Jasmine-Skies