Tips for the Children's Author Group Session of 19th February - Writing Magic into Children's Stories

This session of the Children's Author Group will be different and take a page out of the Writers' Support Group's methods for we'll be writing something in ten minutes to the theme of 'Writing Magic in Children's Stories'.

Here are the tips for writing a magical story if you prefer to prefer one beforehand and bring it along (you don't have to, we'll have ten minutes to write it at the session and Linda will explain the tips).

Magic in children’s stories works best when it feels wonderful, not complicated. Here are some tried-and-tested tips, sprinkled with a little storytelling pixie dust ✨

Keep the magic simple (but meaningful)

Kids don’t need a rule book. One or two clear magical ideas are usually enough, for example;

• Everyone can talk to animals only at night
• A book that changes its story when you’re brave
• Shoes that take you where you need to go, not where you want
• Simple magic sticks. Complexity can come later.

Give magic rules (even soft ones)

Magic is more fun when it has limits, which creates tension, for example:

• Magic might be tiring
• It might stop working if the character lies
• It might only work once per day, or once ever

Rules help kids understand consequences and fairness.

Tie magic to emotion

The best children’s magic responds to feelings:

• A room glows brighter when someone feels safe
• Spells fail when a character is scared
• Magic grows stronger with kindness, honesty, or courage

This helps kids feel the story, not just watch it.

Let magic solve some problems, but not all

Magic shouldn’t replace effort or growth. Bad example: “She waved her wand and everything was fixed.”

Better example: Magic helps open the door, but the child still has to walk through it.

Children love seeing characters succeed because they tried.

Make magic visible and sensory

Show magic through the senses:

• What does it smell like?
• Is it warm, does it fizz, does it tickle, is it loud, or timid?
• Does it leave glitter, footprints, bent grass or something behind?

Sensory magic makes scenes vivid and memorable.

Keep it age-appropriate

Younger children: playful, safe, reassuring magic (talking animals, friendly spells)

Older children: mystery, small dangers, moral choices, magical consequences

If a spell is scary, balance it with comfort or humour.

Let magic reflect the theme

Ask yourself: What is this story really about?

• Belonging → magic that reveals hidden similarities
• Growing up → magic that fades as the child learns
• Confidence → magic that only works when the character believes

When magic supports the theme, the story feels deeper without being heavy.

Don’t over explain

Children enjoy mystery. It’s okay if:

• No one knows where the magic came from
• Adults can’t explain it
• The magic 'just is'

A little unanswered magic keeps the sparkle alive.

Notes for the Promoting Yorkshire Authors (PYA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) Held Wednesday 21st January 2026

Paul Smith welcomed everyone to the PYA AGM and started with highlights of the Chair's Report before addressing the topic of the committee and subcommittee structure for 2026.

Highlights from the Chair and Finance Report

2025 has been another interesting year for PYA as we grew our membership to nearly 450 from across Yorkshire and welcomed many new members to some of our book selling events.

We moved and upgraded our website this year and have made easier the administration of bookings for events where members can participate (like book fairs).

Thanks to the generosity of the organisers, we were invited to attend the prestigious Harrogate Spring and Autumn Harrogate Flower Shows, at the Great Yorkshire Showground and Newby Hall respectively in 2025. We have also been invited to attend the spring show in 2026 (and hopeful the autumn show but this will depend on whether space is available for us), and are grateful for the opportunity to inform everyone about our Community Group and sing the praises of our members and their work.

PYA held two book fairs in the Ridings Centre in Wakefield and we've scheduled two for 2026 - in spring on 16th May and our Christmas book fair on 28th November.

We also held two Book Fairs at Claro Lounge in Ripon and one at Rudding Park near Harrogate but footfall was low for both of these events and we may decide not to run these again.

We're happy to support members who want to run their own book fair type events and promote them through our usual channels but the number of PYA organised events is limited and must be deemed worthwhile by the PYA Events Subcommittee. We have limited resources and we want book fairs to be a success for those participating.

We've continued our monthly ZOOM sessions and are grateful to Helen Johnson for hosting the evening and afternoon sessions of the monthly Writers' Support Group which helps us all improve our authoring with a ten minute writing exercise against a theme. You'd be surprised what can be achieved in ten minutes and the techniques that you learn in these sessions help you improve your writing skills.

The other monthly ZOOM session is hosted by Linda Jones and is the Children's Author Group. We've produced the anthology of children's stories and poems entitled I Want a Crocodile and Make it Snappy which will be published soon.

We linked up with the group "Books and Beverages" to hold a series of children's story and craft days at Knaresborough, Bilton and Harrogate Libraries in 2025 and have more arranged for Knaresborough in the coming year.

Finally, PYA were invited some time ago to link up with the writing group Thirsk Write Now (TWN) who meet by ZOOM every two weeks on a Tuesday at 7.30 pm during the year to read out a short story to a prepared theme. We've some regular attendees from PYA now so, if you are interested in attending, please let us know and TWN will add you to their distribution list to let you know of upcoming themes.

Promoting Yorkshire Authors for the Future - PYA-4F: The PYA-4F is our blueprint for the future and we've made progress on some parts of the framework - but it is very much work in progress. We've a PYA Beta Readers Facebook Group (by invitation only) and the PYA Blog contains useful information to help our members succeed in a crowded marketplace made more difficult - and in some ways easier - by the advent of AI. PYA-4F will be reviewed and if necessary updated in the coming year.

The PYA Finance report shows that PYA have £1,550.46 in net assets and our largest costs are insurance and technology.

PYA Committee: The committee and subcommittees resign at each AGM and those who wish can put themselves forward for re-election for a coming year. We also sought new members for the committee to replace those standing down and to add to the experience of the committee and sub-committees.

Paul Smith did not stand for election as Chair for 2026 and the committee thanked him, led by Mike Padgett, for his contribution to the formation and growth of PYA.

The committee for 2026 is:

• Core: Linda Jones (Chair), Paul Smith (Treasurer), Jane Clack, Kate Swann, Pam Golden and Ros Kind (Finance).
• Advisory: Joy Barnard, Yvonne Battle-Fenton, Lucy Brighton, Karen Drury, Phill Featherstone, Helen Jonson, Stuart Larner, Heike Phelan, Ian Walker. Mike Padgett retired and we thank him for his contribution to the growth of PYA. We welcomed Peter Kay into the advisory committee.
• Finance: Paul Smith (Treasurer), Ros Kind, Linda Jones, Kate Swann. Jane Clack retired from the finance subcommittee and we thank her for her contribution.
• Events Coordination: Paul Smith, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Pam Golden and Yvonne Battle- Fenton.

At this point Paul Smith handed over the meeting to the newly appointed chair, Linda Jones and we welcome Linda into her new position within PYA.

From the New Chair

How do we move forward in 2026?

Perfect, promote and popularise: The three principles that underlie all that we hope to achieve. Over the past few years, we have made substantial strides in all three areas.

Perfect

1. Encouraging authors to continue to improve their writing skills by participating in writing sessions, whether by Zoom or face-to-face. (Linda)
2. Encouraging participation in the Beta Reading scheme. (Pam)
3. With volunteers, draft broad outlines for the establishment of satellite groups, which encourage members to set up local writing groups, PYA offering support and guidance to do so. (Linda)
4. Offer face-to-face meetings to work on a particular topic, such as formatting, marketing, etc. Road-trip the meetings to different areas of Yorkshire to improve accessibility for everyone. (Pam)
5. Provide blog posts and ZOOM sessions that explain the fundamentals of manuscript formatting and independent publishing. (Linda)
6. Encouraging members to participate in producing anthologies aiming to demystify the process of publication and improve skills. (Jane)
7. Focus on selling eBooks - encouraging members to promote these through digital channels to sell more in addition to selling paper and hardback at events (Paul)
8. Arrange a PYA convention – 2027 (Jane)

Promote & Popularise

1. Produce relevant flyers and posters for events
2. Supporting the production of a video involving PYA members that showcases the work of PYA, events and members.
3. YouTube: Supporting members to produce a short film about themselves that could be included. Could be a monthly spotlight on an author?
4. Continue to produce and circulate the Espresso newsletter 
5. Offer guidance and support to members wishing to organise a book event, including Book launches and book fairs.
6. Social Media – Utilise other networks so we provide varied platforms where members can view us and participate.  Mastodon and Blue Sky potentially.
7. Increase awareness of PYA using Instagram. A volunteer to maintain the Instagram page on a regular basis.
8. Press release volunteer. Ensure local press, libraries, and appropriate agencies and magazines receive information about events. 
9. Map of Yorkshire – indicating where our members are situated so we can easily reference areas to organise future events. 

Volunteering for PYA

We are asking for volunteers to take part in a variety of opportunities - from leaflet distribution to journalistic input.

Volunteering for PYA can help to improve your own marketing and self-promotion skills. Whether it's for an individual or an organisation, the principles are the same.

Please review the list below and if you can contribute, contact us through the general email yorkshire.author.promotions@gmail.com. Once we have names, we will contact you with more details.

We need volunteers to help with

• Designing leaflets and flyers
• Writing promotional articles for magazines
• Venue finders throughout Yorkshire for events (large and small)
• Organising additional author events throughout Yorkshire.
• Organise training events in various locations
• Production of a promotional Video and Video shorts.
• -Social Media, including Instagram, Mastodon, and BlueSky
• Producing a Map showing where our authors are located for easy access.
• Anthologies - in all genres (ideas welcomed)

We know that commitment can be difficult, but the more of us involved, the lighter the load. So, thank you so much for taking the time to consider this, and I look forward to working with you in the future.

 

 

Suggestions for 2026 for the Children's Author Group (CAG)

The CAG group met by ZOOM on 15th January 2026, primarily to discuss ideas for the programme for 2026. 

The ideas from the group are listed here and the CAG will meet again on Thursday 19th February 2026 at 2.30pm to consider producing a children's story book addressing reluctant readers, typically boys 8+. 

We're hoping that Jane Clack can give us the benefit of her experience in this area either in person or by providing notes or an audio transcript of her ideas.

Here are a list of ideas discussed, in no particular order:

• Supportive sessions for Children's writers along the lines of PYA's Writers Support Group but aimed at children's authors.
• The CAG work on a communal project, to be decided (and it could be one of the items identified in this list).
• Prepare a schedule for the year's meetings with topics for each one so that people know what is coming up.
• A session on best practices for accommodating Autistic/ADHD/Dyslexic/etc readers and perhaps broaden this to best practices to make reading accessible to all children.
• Audio books - how to produce them, possibly creating an audio version of the anthology 'I Want a Crocodile and Make it Snappy' with authors reading their and possibly other's chapters (if an author feels unable to read theirs).
• Create a blog posting to recommend resources available to children's writers (and other genres).
• A session on illustrating and illustrators.
• Create a communally produced book aimed at reluctant readers. A suggestion was made to create a 'world' (a school, village, region, sci-fi or fantasy world, magical world, etc) populated with strong characters and each chapter giving the viewpoint of a different character and written by a different CAG member.

 

2025 PYA Report from the Chair and Finance Report

Report from the Chair

2025 has been another interesting year for PYA as we grew our membership to nearly 450 from across Yorkshire and welcomed many new members to some of our book selling events.

We moved and upgraded our website this year and have made easier the administration of bookings for events where members can participate (like book fairs). Remember that the committee and subcommittee members are volunteers so it is important that you use the features provided to request participation and - if you can - not contact committee members directly. 

Our event programme can be found on our website and you'll need to sign-in to request participation if it's available or to go on the waiting list when fully booked.

Thanks to the generosity of the organisers, we were invited to attend the prestigious Harrogate Spring and Autumn Harrogate Flower Shows, at the Great Yorkshire Showground and Newby Hall respectively in 2025. We have also been invited to attend the spring show in 2026 (and hopeful for the autumn show but this will depend on whether space is available for us, and are grateful for the opportunity to tell everyone about our Community Group and sing the praises of our members.

PYA held two book fairs in the Ridings Centre in Wakefield and we've scheduled two for 2026 - in spring on 16th May and our Christmas book fair on 21st November (though this might change so keep an eye on the website).

Events like those above take much organising and we're grateful to our small team of organisers and helpers. The book fairs and flower shows wouldn't take place without them and ... you guessed ... we need more of our members to become active in PYA and shape its future.

We also held two Book Fairs at Claro Lounge in Ripon and one at Rudding Park near Harrogate. We're happy to support members who want to run their own book fairs and promote them through our usual channels but the number of PYA organised events is limited and must be deemed to be worthwhile by the PYA Events Organising Subcommittee. We have limited resources and we want book fairs to be a success for those participating.

We've continued our monthly ZOOM sessions and are grateful to Helen Johnson for hosting the evening and afternoon sessions of the monthly Writers' Support Group which helps us all improve our authoring with a ten minute writing exercise against a theme. You'd be surprised what can be achieved in ten minutes and the techniques that you learn in these sessions help you improve your writing skills.

The other monthly ZOOM session is hosted by Linda Jones and is the Children's Author Group. We've produced the anthology of children's stories and poems entitled I Want a Crocodile and Make it Snappy which will be published soon.

Expect more in 2026 and, if you haven't attended one of our ZOOM sessions please consider it. It's an efficient way of encouraging communication between our members from across the ancient Ridings of Yorkshire and we often have participants from as far apart as Hull, Doncaster and Thirsk - not something that would be possible face-to-face.

We linked up with the group "Books and Beverages" to hold a series of children's story and craft days at Knaresborough, Bilton and Harrogate Libraries in 2025 and have more arranged for Knaresborough in the coming year.

Finally, PYA were invited some time ago to link up with the writing group Thirsk Write Now (TWN) who meet by ZOOM every two weeks on a Tuesday at 7.30 pm during the year to read out a short story to a prepared theme. We've some regular attendees from PYA now so, if you are interested in attending, please let us know and TWN will add you to their distribution list to let you know of upcoming themes.

PYA Committee: The committee and subcommittees resign at each AGM and those who wish it can put themselves forward for re-election for a coming year (see agenda). We are also seeking new members for the committee to replace those standing down and to add to the experience of the committee and sub-committees.

Promoting Yorkshire Authors for the Future PYA-4F: The PYA-4F is our blueprint for the future and we've made some progress on some parts of the framework - but it is very much work in progress. We've a PYA Beta Readers Facebook Group (by invitation only) and the PYA Blog contains useful information to help our members succeed in a crowded marketplace made more difficult - and in some ways easier - by the advent of AI. Watch this space as PYA-4F gains traction.

Finance Report

Agenda - Promoting Yorkshire Authors (PYA) - Annual General Meeting 2026

The PYA Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 21st January 2026 by ZOOM at 7 pm and we encourage all members to join us as we shape the direction of PYA for the next twelve months and beyond.

Here are the ZOOM joining instructions for the evening.

Join Zoom Meeting using this link.

Meeting ID: 828 9544 7482

Passcode: 094012

Agenda

• Welcome plus Chair and Finance Report (Paul Smith)
• Committee and Subcommittees - The committee and subcommittees will resign and those who wish will put themselves forward for re-election for a coming year. We are also seeking new members for the committee to replace those standing down and to add to the experience of the committee and subcomittees. The members seeking re-election are:
• Core PYA Committee: Linda Jones (Proposed Chair), Paul Smith (Treasurer), Jane Clack (Vice Chair), Kate Swann, Pam Golden, Ros Kind.
• PYA Advisory Committee: Joy Barnard, Yvonne Battle-Fenton, Lucy Brighton, Karen Drury, Phill Featherstone, Helen Johnson, Stuart Larner, Heike Phelan, Ian Walker.
• PYA Finance Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Ros Kind, Linda Jones, Kate Swann.
• PYA Events Coordination Subcommittee: Paul Smith, Jane Clack, Linda Jones, Pam Golden.
• At this point Paul Smith (current Chair) will hand over the meeting to the New Chair
• Plans for 2026, the year ahead (New Chair)
• Any other business.
• Date of the Next AGM - 20th January 2027 proposed.