Trying Something New

When I did my balanced scorecard assessment at the end of February, I said I enjoyed writing and would like to do more. I was pushed into actually doing something by Rosie wanting to enter the Macmillan Prize for Children's Book Illustrators. She could have chosen an existing story and was quite tempted by complicated and unsuitable Nordic fairy stories but we decided it would be better to have an original story.
Consequently I have written a story about two woodland creatures who are being terrorised by their own shadows

The shadows, despite their appearance in Rosie's drawing are more mischievous than malevolent and a firm talking to by the girl sets things right. The girl who lives by herself in a cottage by the wood, is not quite an ordinary girl. For one thing, her own shadow can act independently of her.

Although I want to refine and rewrite the story, the bulk of the work falls on Rosie. Illustrating a story is much harder work than actually writing it, I don't feel that the illustrators get enough credit. Would the Gruffalo have been such a huge success without Axel Scheffler's creation?
So given that she is at college and has other commitments and deadlines, not to mention a nearly three year old son, it might not get finished to a standard we think good enough to enter the Macmillan Prize this year (closing date 30th April) but it is something that we will work towards in the future.