And then there were 15

Many moons ago when I was working as a Junior Editor in-house, I had the job of looking through what was referred to as the Slush Pile. I would pour over stories knowing that my employer rarely accepted unsolicited manuscripts. That policy then became a flat-out 'No' so I had the task of saying to people that sorry, we wouldn't be able to do anything with their work. I hated it as it felt like I was snubbing out someone's dream.

Now...fast forward (ahem) a few years and Peahen has been going for four years. It was always going to be a slow burner to start with as I had to set this company up and navigate it around three young children – the peachicks. I never had maternity leave; being newly redundant didn't allow for it. So I muddled through setting up Peahen working around my youngest's nap times, feeds, then Peppa Pig – I became a dab hand at tackling tasks during those brief episodes!

The youngest peachick is now in Reception and I've just added the latest Peahen book, Gaia's Revenge to the website. I had to have a moment when I counted up the books Nic and I have done to date and there are 15! 15 Peahen books! I don't know why this surprised me but seeing all of those front covers stood in their little rows on the website made me feel very happy. 

With another three books about to go to the printer and new enquiries coming in, thanks to the recent entry in the Children's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook, I'm looking forward to making lots and lots of books. And the best bit is that now when I get a phone call by someone asking if we can publish their story, I can say Yes.