I tend to use black gel pens when I’m making notes or sketching characters for a story – they’re cheap and I love the richness of line. They’re great for both writing and drawing.

I am addicted to notebooks, but there is no particular brand I go for – the main requirement is that it should have plain, unlined paper and a cover that appeals to me in some way. I know what I like, and when I see something lovely I have to have it because it could be months or years before another perfect notebook presents itself! I always carry a notebook, and usually pick at random from a stack of notebooks I have on the go at any one time… I love this mixing up of time, ideas and events. I might be sketching a character for a new book in the same notebook I used to map out my Chocolate Box Girls series six years ago, and there could be shopping lists, notes for events speeches or even doodles of one of my kids singing at a gig in there too. It’s like little layers of your personal history!

Gold gel pens for signing books are probably my biggest weakness when it comes to stationery. I also keep a paper diary, usually from Paperchase. Apart from these things, most of my supplies probably fall more into the art materials category!

I write books for the 9-14 age group, and the books focus on friendship, family, fitting in… on feelings, really. My new book, Love From Lexie, is out now and is the first in a brand new series called The Lost & Found, about a mismatched group of friends in secondary school who accidentally find themselves forming a band. Lexie, who narrates the first story in the series, has had a tough start in life and cannot help searching out the lost things – and lost people – all around her. Lexie slowly learns that perhaps her quest to rescue others is really all about finding herself! I’m so excited about the series… I hope my readers love it too!

Find out more about Cathy Cassidy on her website: www.cathycassidy.com

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Reader blog (mostly written by her readers, for her readers): http://cathycassidydreamcatcher.blogspot.co.uk/