Hello!
I’m Hazel and I’m a writer. I write picture book texts for children up to the age of 7.
I live in the North West of England with my husband, two small children, two cats and two tortoises.
I’m a Gen X flavoured Millennial with an analogue childhood and digital adulthood. I think they call us Xennials.
I’m a project manager and event planner, but above all else I love to write. When I’m not writing, I’m usually editing, researching, querying, pitching, reading… well, if you’re a writer too you know the drill. I also spend a lot of time staring into space and thinking up new story ideas. I am an unashamed fan of toilet humour but also like wordplay, relatable stories and anything silly or spooky.
I’ve been writing for fun for a long time but it’s only comparatively recently that I turned to writing children’s literature. I love picture books in particular because of the challenge of writing a compelling narrative in so few words. Plus, with being the parent of a story-hungry 5 year old, I own more picture books than I can count.
Like most writers, I’m yet to be published and I’m searching for an agent. Getting an agent is hard. You can be a great writer and pitcher but you need to be submitting exactly what they are looking for at exactly the right time. Anyway, I’m sure there’s a blog post brewing about that.
Luckily I’m ridiculously persistent when it comes to things I love, because there aren’t many. Although crochet, rock music and the Back to the Future trilogy are up there too.
I decided to set up this blog to connect with other children’s writers and well, to write. I’m also a member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators which is proving to be a valuable resource.
Use Twitter? Follow me at @hazel. Yes, I’m old enough to have my first name as my Twitter handle which is both a blessing and a curse.