Helloooooo lovely readers!

Words & Pictures averages over a thousand page views a day - fewer if it's sunny! After a year and half of almost daily posts, there's a lot to look at and it makes it all worth while to know that people are enjoying what we put up on the web.

BUT it's comments from real readers that make us especially happy. They're the toy in the Kinder Egg, the plastic doggie from the amusement arcade, the funny joke in the christmas cracker…

Comments on the blog confirm we're reaching our target readership  - SCBWI members, writers and illustrators for children, and anyone interested in making stories for children and young people. They reassure us, tapping away alone on our sofas, that our words are finding a home not floating lost and alone in the void.

It does take time to comment - I can spend ages mulling over how a comment sounds - and still get it wrong! Also Blogger can make commenting difficult, especially on phones. But if you've enjoyed anything you've read this week we'd love to know - just letting us know that you're out there would be lovely.

Did you catch any of these?

• The July Slushpile Challenge is UP!
• Another really comprehensive Ask a Picture Book Editor with Natascha and Ellie
• Nick's Blog Break - who knew Nick had so many hidden talents? (read his bio)
• And another Nick, Nick Cook lets us in on That First School Visit
• Network News from Southampton's first SCBWI workshop
• Shana Nieberg-Suschitzky's report on  Gillian McClure's Ways Into Publishing illustration masterclass
• Clare Furniss's remarkably short route to publishing success via the SCBWI Agents' Party

Next week look out for:

• Ask a Publisher - Rowena House interviews Karen Ball, Publisher at Little, Brown, Young Readers and Atom
• Nicky Schmidt introduces her series of interviews with some of this year's crop of debut authors.
• A new Featured Illustrator
• And next Sunday 20th July at 2pm…. the children's results for The Chalkface Challenge!

From Janet's wonderful post on older debuts to Nicky's debut interviews you might think this month would be better called Debut month but each one of our debut authors were, not so long ago, 'nearly there' so we hope this month is an encouragement to those of us (though we probably don't know it) about to break through.

Nick is looking after this slot for me next week as I'm off celebrating an anniversary. Thanks Nick!

Have a good week!

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is all over the place, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta. You can contact her at editor@britishscbwi.org.