I have finally taken the plunge and started to Tweet. It’s an odd kind of discipline to keep your comments to 140 characters – especially for a journalist who was always told off by the subs for overwriting…
You can follow me at www.twitter.com/jo_wiltshire.
The Baby Sleep Bible featured in a long article in Norwich’s Evening News this week – the Evening News is the sister paper to the Eastern Daily Press, which is where I started my career as a journalist (and also where I met my husband Lewis!). Evie and Charlie were delighted that they were in the picture, along with favourite “cuddlies” Blue Bear and Ducky. When I told Evie that people could look at the internet version of the article from anywhere in the world, she was very impressed: “We’re famous all over the world!”
Anyway, thank you Rowan Mantell for the feature – it means a lot to be in the paper, even though it’s as the interviewee now rather than the interviewer..!
Cover of The Potty Training Bible
Have just realised that it is possible to pre-order my next book, The Potty Training Bible, on Amazon even though I am currently still writing Chapter One! A weird feeling…but the book is gearing up to be a fantastic one, because it’s a subject every parent has top tips and woeful tales about. There are also a lot of ways of approaching potty training – from “do it in one day” methods to “let them do it themselves” and even so-called “boot camps”!
I also have a brilliant and very knowledgeable expert on board, who is going to be providing advice and guidance. It’s out next March!
Had an email today from Stacey Corbett, the owner of the Canadian website www.onetinysuitcase.ca, which provides travelling parents with difficult-to-pack essentials such as nappies and formula milk and even high chairs and play equipment – and has it all waiting for you on arrival at your destination. She had been told her company was in the book by a contact in Australia – so Sneaky Parenting really is going global!
Other exciting news is that The Baby Sleep Bible is out this month (September 15th). I have some advance copies and it looks fantastic – thanks again to all the bleary-eyed parents who contributed, and to midwife Sara Warren who provided her excellent advice.
And finally, I am currently working on The Potty Training Bible, due to be published next Spring – so if anyone is currently in the throes of potty or toilet madness and would like to provide their top tips or most dire warnings, please do get in touch or leave your comments or contact details on this site.
The finished manuscript for my next book The Baby Sleep Bible has gone off to the publisher – phew! It’s been a fantastic experience writing it – it’s all about families finding the right baby sleep method for them, whatever their lifestyle. From co-sleepers to routine addicts to parents of twins, there’s an answer in this book! And like Sneaky Parenting, it has lots of “views from the trenches” from my cohort of brilliant Mums and Dads – thank you to everyone who contributed.
The Baby Sleep Bible is available to pre-order on Amazon now… so if you’re seeking some sleep solutions, or know somebody who is, you can claim your copy in advance!
The Baby Sleep Bible - out in September 2009
Today I was back on BBC Three Counties Radio with Lorna Milton – discussing the “big issue” of sleep, and how to get some. We had a great response from listeners, all desperate for tips on how to encourage their children to love their beds!
Many such parents have been contributing to my current book, which is all about the various sleep methods you can try, and which ones work for which families. It’s going to be a non-preachy guide to everything sleep-related, which will enable parents to choose the sleep approaches right for them – whether they’re an “all in the bed” kind of family, routine freaks, parents of twins (or more!) or just a family trying to establish sleep in the midst of chaos!
The book is due out this Autumn with Crimson Publishing - and I’m finishing the final pages in the next fortnight, so if you have any great tips you’d like me to include, I’d be delighted to hear them!
I was on BBC Three Counties Radio with Lorna Milton again this week – this time, with Allison Mitchell, whose management background inspired her to write her books The Manic Mum’s Guide to Magnificent Parenting and Time Management for Manic Mums. Allison has three children aged eight and up, and therefore has lots to say about teens and older children – so together we make a good team!
It’s a different experience doing Lorna’s Expert Hour with another expert – a bit like playing verbal ping-pong! – but great fun, and wonderful to meet another mother with lots of advice for real families with real – and often less than perfect – lives.
We should be teaming up again in the New Year…in the meantime, I will be concentrating on having a frazzle-free festive break, and on gathering those Baby Sleep experiences for the new book. Happy Christmas!
Hello again – after rather a long silence! I have been a bit preoccupied because I have recently signed a contract for a new parenting book with Crimson Publishing, which now owns White Ladder Press (publisher of Sneaky Parenting). The new book will focus on getting those little angels to sleep – it will have a unique angle in the “baby sleep” market, and I’m very excited to be doing it. I already have some willing parents lined up as contributors, standing by with their tales of sleep heaven and hell…
Tomorrow I am back on BBC Three Counties Radio with Lorna Milton for her expert hour – we will be focusing on tips for how to beat the credit crunch when it comes to clothes and equipment for your little ones. Do call in if you have any bright ideas!
And if anyone has a favourite baby sleep method which worked for them – or failed miserably – and would like to contribute to the new book, please get in touch.
It’s been a while since I blogged, because I have been awash with Evie’s end-of-term social events – she has just finished nursery, and starts “big school” in September – and last week I was in Spain on holiday with the family (gaining new tips for travelling for future books!). I’m home in the UK now, and today I was back on “Sneaky Parenting” duty, with an appearance on BBC Three Counties Radio, as the “expert” on the Expert Hour on Lorna Milton’s Afternoon Show.
I did this slot back in May, and that went well – so did today’s. Lorna was wondefully friendly and professional as usual – despite having had to eat a whole “extra-strength” chilli on air minutes before my slot as part of the previous feature! - and we had a good range of calls and emails. I find it really exciting to talk to “real” parents on air and hopefully be able to pass on some ideas they hadn’t thought of – and even to gain some ideas, as many listeners have good tips of their own.
I’m booked in to do the Expert Hour again in August, so I look forward to that, and the book still seems to be doing well on amazon.co.uk and in Waterstone’s and all other retailers.
I hope to have some very exciting news about another book soon – watch this space!
