2007 has been a good year. Damage was nominated for the Carnegie medal and shortlisted for four regional awards – the North East Book Award (won by Marcus Sedgwick), the Angus Book Award (won by Kevin Brooks), the Leicester Teenage Book of the Year Award (won by SF Said) and the Calderdale Teenage Book Award (won by Cliff McNish). It was exciting to attend all four award ceremonies - especially in such great company – and to hear feedback from a wide range of readers. Congratulations to all the winners of these awards. I’ve visited several schools this year in Wales, the Midlands, the Wirral, Gloucestershire, Scotland and the North East. Thanks to everyone who participated in these events and made them such fun. I had a great time at Greenbelt festival in August in baking hot sun introducing people to some of the hands-on multi-sensory activities in my book Exploring Prayer which came out in June. I’ve been writing another non-fiction book this year – about people’s experience of bereavement – which involved a lot of interviewing and listening. (Living with Bereavement is published by Lion in June 2008). I’m still a volunteer at the Sue Ryder Hospice in Cheltenham – helping people tell their own stories - and during 2007 this writing-and-health side of my work has been growing. I’ve been writer-in-residence in a hospital (listening to the stories of elderly patients and capturing them in a book called Real as Yesterday) in a GP surgery (as part of Art-Lift, a project in Gloucestershire, designed to help people feel better by participating in art and writing sessions) and in the children’s ward of Bath RUH where I’ve been helping sculptor Edwina Bridgeman make a Carnival of Dreams. I’m now working on an adult novel about four women and hope to write another teenage book later in 2008. I’m looking forward to a story-telling project with flood-affected teenagers in Tewkesbury in February, events in Staffordshire in March and a trip a Book Festival in Brussels in October… . So Happy New Year! Here’s to 2008! Sue Home | Author | Writing | FAQS | News | Events | Books | Fun | Contact Design by Bouncinglemon Photos of Sue Mayfield by Kate Newlove