Riverdale news, kitten spam and some general horsing around

Hello!

First of all, I'd like to wish you a very happy New Year and I hope that 2022 is a year to remember for all the right reasons.

Life in the Wills household has been as busy as ever since I was last in touch back in the summer.

[Was it really that long ago? I can only apologise, and promise that one of my New Year's resolutions is to write to you much more regularly.]

Most of my time has been taken up with another writing project, which I finished at the end of the year.

Which means I can finally turn my attention to Riverdale and Poppy and Cloud's next adventure.

Just before Christmas I sat down with a pen and notebook and began jotting down ideas for the eleventh book.

[If you'd told me when I first started writing The Lost Pony of Riverdale nine years ago that nearly a decade later I would be planning Book Eleven in the series I would have laughed my socks off. Who'd have thought it, eh?!]

Anyways, I was a bit worried I might have run out of plots by now, but I needn't have been. As I sat at my desk, doodling and daydreaming, the seed of an idea came to me. And suddenly I had the beginnings of a story.

A cracking story, even though I say so myself!

Even though I've been away from Cloud, Chester, Jenny and the other Riverdale neddies, I've still been getting my horsey fix in real life with Dobbie and his big brother Lockie.

I love being these guys' honorary auntie. They always provide plenty of inspiration for the books, that's for sure!

While we're on the subject of animals, I can't really believe it, but next week it'll have been a year since we welcomed Luna into our family.

She is such a part of our lives that it's hard to imagine a time before she was here.

Although she's now a year old, she's as cheeky as ever, and is definitely still a kitten at heart!

In book news, The Midnight Pony and Other Stories is now available in a beautiful hardback edition.

This collection of three stories - The Midnight Pony, Juno's Foal and The Pony of Tanglewood Farm - is perfect for younger readers aged seven to nine.

Described by one reviewer as 'Horsey heaven', the book is available here.

The two Mill Farm Stables books, The Thirteenth Horse and Trophy Horse, are now available as a two-book box set, both as an ebook and paperback.

If you've read and enjoyed the Riverdale books, I know you'll love these stories about pony-mad Kristy and her two and four-legged friends. You can check it out here.

And finally, I was so excited to see the Czech edition of Redhall Riders, which arrived in the post in November.

Even more exciting is the news that the publishers have just bought the rights for the fifth Riverdale book, The Secret of Witch Cottage.

Which I'm hoping means that young pony-mad readers from the Czech Republic are enjoying Poppy and Cloud's adventures!

So that's all my news for now. With a bit of luck and a fair wind behind me, I'll be well into the first draft of the new Riverdale book when I next write.

In the meantime, take care and happy reading!

Amanda x