One of my own personal favourites of 2015

If you love reading or writing middle grade books (books for a readership aged 8-12), and you’re also a twitter user, then there’s a new twitter chat starting tonight at 7pm – 8pm that may well be of interest to you – #MGiechat.

Now, I’m a staunch believer that children’s books aren’t just for children, and seeing as you need to be 13 to have a twitter account, this chat is aimed at the adults among us who still believe in the magic of storytelling and recognise the value of middle grade books.

The initial #MGiechat tonight is a meet and greet, so people can say hi, introduce themselves, talk about their favourite middle grade books and authors, and set some parameters for future chats – How often? What time? What topic? Does the chat need it’s own blog or can I wedge it onto my website?

This all came about because I recently realised that most of my chats on twitter about middle grade books were on #ukmgchat – a wonderful chat (don’t worry, I’m not abandoning you guys), but where was the equivalent in Ireland?

It wasn’t until the wonderful Michelle Moloney King (of #YAie brilliance) pointed out that I could start a chat here in Ireland, that I even considered it. So, consider the gap filled! Hopefully tonight will be the first of many, so do come along and say hi. We’re a friendly bunch.

If you’re new to twitter chats, here’s how: open twitter, search for the hashtag #MGiechat in the search bar, and click on the All option to see all the chats. Keep refreshing the page to stay up to date. You’ll see all tweets that include that hashtag – just RT, reply & tweet as usual.

Hope to see you there!