Welcome to Pizza Pete’s second adventure – full of magic, silliness, and mystery! This is a fanatic series for newly confident readers who are searching for highly-illustrated chapter books to enjoy.
“Pizza Pete is back! But he’s worried about seeing his friends after a long summer holiday selling pizzas from his van with Dad.
He’s also in great danger. Someone wants the magical potions and will stop at nothing to get them… When they go missing, Pete has to summon all his courage to save the day.
Pete is back in the second book in the trilogy filled with flying, friendship and of course … pizza!”
Carrie Sellon – My Journey into Writing
Most writers will say they’ve wanted to write a book since they were five years old. That wasn’t me. I always loved reading – I used to read under the covers with a lamp. In fact,my brother saved my life when I was about seven years old – he smelt smoke and came into my bedroom to find my duvet was on fire from the bedside light (don’t try it at home)! I was so engrossed in my book I hadn’t noticed. I have very happy memories of going to Wimbledon library after school once a week with my Mum. I was allowed to take out eight books and I devoured them, desperate to get my next batch.
But writing – not so much. It seemed like an awful lot of effort to write a book, and there were so many brilliant ones out there. How would I ever be able to write anything as good?
So, I studied sciences, read Zoology at university and (after lots of random jobs including chief jumper-folder at Benetton and door-to-door sales marketing in Australia) finally got my dream job at the BBC Natural History Unit, making wildlife films. Part of the job was writing scripts for the presenters, including David Attenborough. That’s where I learnt less is more.
But then three babies came along, and you can’t dash off to the Arctic to film polar bears for 3 months if you’re changing nappies, so I took some time off. I wrote little stories, including a book about dancing dogs, in a Starbucks, pushing a buggy with my foot, but I didn’t have any plans to pursue my writing any further.
Until … I met a stranger at a party and started talking to him about my love of writing. He told me to stop banging on about it and why didn’t I just get on with it and write a book! That flicked a switch in my brain. I signed up for a writing course as I thought it would help motivate me. The 3-month course started the day the children started homeschooling in lockdown. It was interesting timing, but I learnt a new skill – how to grab quick moments to write in between marking work and making meals. Before then I used to need a quiet house and a long empty stretch of time to write.
The course gave me the confidence to share my work, taught me how to give and receive constructive criticism and, most importantly, I met an amazing and supportive group of writer buddies that I’m still in touch with now. After finishing the course I entered an early version of Pizza Pete and the Perilous Potions to the Guppy Open Submissions competition and, although I didn’t win, from that I landed my publishing deal!
To be offered a trilogy with my first book, is something I never believed would happen. I’d heard the usual stories of people sending out to hundreds of agents and hearing nothing, and somehow I bunny-hopped that stage and went straight to the publisher. This is why you should send your writing to competitions! You never know who is going to read it.
I’m really excited to be launching the second book in the trilogy with Pizza Pete and the Missing Magic. Readers have been really positive about the book so far, and I’m off on tour tomorrow visiting schools all over the south and west of England. Now that I’ve got two books under my belt I feel like a proper author!
Pizza Pete and the Missing Magic by Carrie Sellon, illustrated by Sarah Horne, is out now, published by Guppy. £7.99 paperback.
Thank you Carrie for sharing some insights into how you came to get Pete’s first adventure published. It’s always interesting to see the winding paths people have taken to land at being an author. Chasing polar bears does sound like a lot of fun, but then so does being an author!
Jo.
*Many thanks to Guppy Books for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour*
Library Girl and Book Boy 