Ponies and magic - who could ask for more?!

Remember that book I promised to have finished in six weeks?

After working as a news reporter for 20 odd years (and some of them were very odd) I'm no stranger to deadlines. But this was the first fiction deadline I'd ever had. And I'll let you in on a secret. I was a little bit terrified.

So terrified that I took the laptop on holiday to France and wrote while everyone else was lounging by the pool. Once we were home I squirreled myself away in what I optimistically call my study (a desk in the corner of the dining room) and wrote some more.

The crazy deadline was probably a blessing in disguise. I couldn't afford to procrastinate. I cast aside my usual delaying tactics - cleaning the kitchen floor, tackling the ironing mountain, baking flapjacks - and gradually the story began to take shape.

And here we are, just over six weeks later, and the book is finished. Phew!

The Midnight Pony is a short novel for eight to ten-year-olds. And everyone else who loves pony books!

It tells the story of nine-year-old Ella Morgan. Ella doesn't believe in magic. But she's in for a big surprise. Sent to stay with her eccentric aunt in a ramshackle clifftop house, she wakes one night at the stroke of midnight to find herself in a magical woodland glade.

By her side is a beautiful palomino pony - the same pony from a mysterious painting she was given for her birthday.

Ella is convinced it's just a dream. Will she ever believe that magic is everywhere, if you only know where to look?

The Midnight Pony is available to download now for just 99p from Amazon.co.uk or $1.49 from Amazon.com.

The Midnight Pony is in the same series of chapter books for younger readers as Juno's Foal and The Pony of Tanglewood Farm. So we've given Tanglewood a new look so it fits in with the other two.

I love the font and it has the most awesome name - Mountains of Christmas. Very festive!

Anyway, that's all from me. After a summer spent with Ella and the Midnight Pony, Riverdale is calling me. I have stories to plot, characters to concoct and mysteries to solve.

I can picture Poppy in the yard now, tacking up Cloud before she heads off to Ashworthy where Scarlett and Red are waiting for her. I must follow them, because I have a feeling there's another adventure waiting for them just around the corner...

Happy reading!

Amanda