Very first blog entry! Exciting stuff!

I have to confess - I've rarely read anybody else's blog. I haven't been able to see what the attraction is. But in recent months I have come to realise that I appreciate a place to rant/sound off/let off steam/whatever you want to call it, especially if anyone replies. So I'm giving it a go. If you reply, that'll be a very exciting bonus - but for now I'm just going to enjoy ranting!

If you've read any of my books, you may have guessed that in some ways they're a cover for my ranting habit. I have many axes to grind! Kate, my main character in the the 'My Mum' books has quite a bit of me in her! She argues with God a lot. She struggles with him - or is he a she? She'll probably think about that one day! She raises a lot of spiritual questions. And guess what? So do I - probably much to the irritation of people who have a more secure and straightforward faith. But I'm writing for young people and that seems an appropriate place to raise questions.

I detest 'issue' books - the ones that pretend to tell a story but are really 'to make you think' about abortion or disability or bullying or racism - or whatever! And I know I could be accused of doing that myself. (I so remember one boy I taught who looked in despair at the book I was recommending to him and said, 'God, miss, not another meaningful book!') At heart, I want to change the world - to be Lord Shaftesbury or Bob Geldof or any one of the many people I admire - but my talents and time are limited and I do love writing. So the stories will always have an undercurrent of ranting about something - although I hope they're not 'issue' books but really good stories too. When I look at the ones I've lost interest in or haven't been published, I can see what's missing - they haven't been fired by something I really care about. 'Fur' was interesting because it was initially inspired by a furious moment I had with one of my best friends - I was ranting about the amount of time and money girls and women spend on getting rid of body hair and he just couldn't see what the issue was. But as I began to write, as ever, bigger issues came through - forgiveness, reconciliation, moving on from the pain of the past - stuff I come back to again and again because it seems so important. Two friends pointed out that it was about grace - with a small g. It was only at that point, that I realised the significance of my central character's name - Grace. That gave me the shivers, I can tell you!

And now 'Piper' is soon to be published, fired by my horror at the ruthless killing of Brazilian street children and finding out about children in India going blind from carpet weaving. I'll soon be posting something on my site about why I wrote it - there's more to it than that - but as ever, the need to rant was in the mix!

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a newspaper column? You could be paid for ranting! I've just done a free column for our local rag ranting about blood doning which was very therapeutic. On Sunday I'll be leading our church's Harvest Festival but the drama which I've helped the young people to create is under-cover ranting about the crisis in British farming. When Michael Morpurgo wrote 'Out of the Ashes' after the last Foot and Mouth outbreak, I spotted a fellow ranter - though he does it far better, of course. He runs Farms for City Children so is action rather than all talk. Deeply admirable. I rant more than I do and satisfy myself with random acts of kindness and sporadic bits of activism. Actions speak louder than words and one of my big gripes with God is that he gave me a gift with words - lovely, very lovely, but impractical. So I rant a lot and hope it motivates others to do quite a lot of acting for me! If you're a young person who reads my books - or an old one for that matter - I hope you love the stories but that in some way your actions will be changed! Scary. Hope that doesn't put you off reading them! Meg