Writing a book in a month is not for the faint hearted, but this was the task I gave myself at the end of July. It’s gone fairly well. ‘The Last Scarecrow‘ is 55,000 words in total so it’s a little on the short side but it’s a first draft of a book, nonetheless.

I’d been kicking around the idea of a story that had a little or no human characters in it. There is something far more magical and captiviating about animals and imaginary creatures, monsters an...