Lucy Coats: "My first proper job was as an editor in children’s book publishing, so I know what the world of books is like from both an editor’s and a writer’s perspective. While I was doing that I won a poetry competition, and then I submitted a poem for an anthology which was being commissioned by my boss. I used a pseudonym, and keeping my mouth shut while all the other editors were discussing whether it was any good or not is nearly the hardest thing I’ve ever done. A Woobit Song got chosen on merit, and was the first thing I ever had published.
Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out for my writing career), I became very sick with something called myalgic encephalomyelitis when I returned from working as an editor in America, and I had to give up my publishing job. That was when I really turned to writing as a way of keeping my brain occupied. My first book One Hungry Baby was published in 1992, and I’ve been writing for children ever since. I have been married to Richard-from-Uni since 1989.We now have two teenage kids—a boy and a girl—and also three dogs—two black labradors and a weird and obstinate Dandie Dinmont terrier (a rare British breed which looks like a very small highland cow without horns and on mega-short legs. It has black boot-button eyes under a blonde fringe and sounds like a bass Great Dane when it barks, which it does continuously). We also have a horse and an ancient guinea-pig. We all live in Northamptonshire, surrounded by sheep, more horses, noisy birds and a view of my stone circle that inspires me every single day."
Author's Website: https://lucycoats.com/about.htm
