life of a street dancer

Did anyone else blink and it's June? I can't even believe 6 months has gone and just so much has happened. Apart from my dad it's been a great year so far and for that I'm grateful. I'll honestly take any good news I can get at this point.  I hit a career highlight. I got to chair a panel for The London Book Fair! Now to do this you usually have to pitch and I'm sure I've pitched before but this time the amazing Bec, who was organising it asked me to do it! It was so much fun and I wish it was longer but it made me look at my LBF journey and honestly wow. I went from no one talking to me, to winning Trailblazers to chairing LBF. What's so funny is I've always wanted to chair Waterstones events cause they look like loads of fun so hopefully now I'll get asked :). I was asked to do another LBF event - who am I even? Lol. I had to do a Q and A with Yomi Adegoke, co-author of Slay In Your Lane. So glad that I'm getting these fun opportunities. Ca...

We are on week 2 of lockdown in London. Hoping everyone is doing okay! I work remotely so not much has changed for me. Walking down the road is a trip. It's literally a ghost town and finding toilet roll and pasta is like stumbling across a pot of gold. I miss seeing my mates, church and driving! I literally volunteer to go to the shops just so I can drive! The lockdown had to happen though. When I was driving to the shop I could see bare people in the park just laying down, sunbathing and me and everyone in the cars were just staring at them like wtf?! But despite all the crap the lockdown has made me very appreciative of my health, my family, that I have a garden to all least go for run in without people breathing on me. I am bored enough that I'm messing about with filters on Instagram. My uncle and cousins have natural blue eyes so it's defo my mum that ruined the gene. The publishing world is slowly closing down and loads of books are being delayed. We haven...

So my friends are trying to get me to join a dating app. There are several reasons why I don't want to do it. 1. I don't have any issues meeting guys but I haven't met the right guy and will they be on Tinder? Meh 2. I feel like I would get caught up talking to different people and will lose track of who's who 3. I don't have space for another app on my phone I am a little bit intrigued about Bumble as I like the fact that the ladies are in charge but everyone I know that has used a dating app, I don't feel like great things have happened for them. Maybe one day when I'm drunk or bored I'll try it and see. Actually maybe not when I'm bored cause that's when I do dumb things. I got to film for Egmont Publishing! How cool right? Hilary who runs their publicity reached out to me and wanted me to do a short video about tips for their authors. Very cool. I feel like every author is part of a members club. I didn't even know there were so ...

I was so excited for January to be over. All that darkness and gloom and right now in London, it's snowing. Yes full on snow at the end of February. What kind of foolishness? Then it had the cheek to be really sunny AND STILL SNOW! I really can't with this country.  I started my World Book Day school tour today and was legit caught in a blizzard. Was so happy when my afternoon class was cancelled, was way too cold. The Originals launches tomorrow!! I am always amazed when I am able to get a book done but to get a book done with 27 stories written by kids—the Lord gave me strength. The books  arrived and look sick! All the kids and parents are excited, I'm excited, I'm sure you're excited or if you're not get excited cause The Originals is coming!!! I got an email from The London Book Fair about the Trailblazer Awards 2018. Never heard of it but was open to anyone under 30. I started to write the submission but I can't boast about myself so I asked Helen ...

Summer is finally here!! Literally, it's only just come now lool and it is amazing. I think there was a Tuesday that was 31 degrees. The worst thing is teaching dance in the weather, cause I legit have nothing to wear. I also had a taster session on Tuesday for this new teaching job and this kid comes up to me and says, “Are you the dance teacher?” I said, “Yes,” and then he goes, “Well I bet I'm a better football player and dancer than you.” You know when it's just too hot and no-one has time for silly people? So I just stared at him for ages until he got so uncomfortable. In my head I was thinking, is he okay? He kind of backed away from me, I'm not sure why and I called him over. He grabbed the nearest boy to come over to me with him – like I was going to swing for him or something looool and then I told him what a rude little fool he was. I think because I said it in one tone, it freaked him out. Then he ran away. I told one of the teachers who said, “Good! I can...

I wrote and posted a blog and something must have gone wrong because it says it doesn't exist! Oh dear Had the best time at the Literally PR Media Party in Chelsea. I was so nervous because I had to give a speech but it amazingly came out good! Met some fab people and made great contacts. All night I was looking out for Bloomsbury Publishing and when I was talking to this journalist, Aleta was talking to Bloomsbury! During the 2nd round of speeches, Aleta was waving around this piece of paper, giggling like a loon and giving me these mysterious looks. I thought she was just drunk! Turns out Bloomsbury came to my table and asked for more details and she got an email address for the senior editor! Slam dunk!!! It's so interesting that I keep bumping into HarperCollins and Bloomsbury Publishing, it feels like I get so close and yet not quite there but I have good feeling about this. Something fab is going to happen soon. During my speech, I mentioned 'Rose' and every...

We lost another great person. Maya Angelou. Her words will forever live on and continue to inspire people. It's going to be so awesome seeing who God raises up to be the greats of this generation. Ever feel like you are being pulled in a million different directions? That's where I am right now but it's a good place to be in as long as I can manage it better. I was reading over my past blogs and it's so interesting to see how far I've come. I started this blog as a way to gain confidence in my writing before I released a book and I'm so glad I carried it on as I can see my growth. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my blogs. So I have had the most epic idea for Emily. See right now I'm waiting on the phone call that tells me I have a publishing deal and the first book is already out in the world, so I've been thinking about what can I do in the mean time to still engage with my readers, write but not have to self-publish a book. I am no...

One word. Drake. He is amazing!! I wasn't expecting him to be amazing but he was bloody amazing!! Wasn't really looking forward to him but OMG he can shut it down. His energy on stage, from beginning to end and I swear he sang every song he has ever done.  It felt like the best party you would ever go to. I don't even fancy Drake but when he brought a girl on stage from the audience, I felt very possessive of him. Chelsea looked like she was going to explode. It was so hilarious.  I actually don't know what I would do if I was called on to the stage. I don't get embarrassed easily but for Drake..... Jhene Aiko came out and she sang very well, was a shame Rihanna didn't come out. Wanted my 3 for 1 ticket. Our seats were amaze balls. Chelsea did good. There were 3 boys a few rows in front of us. They looked so young maybe 17 ish and they were drinking like crazy. This song comes on, maybe it was Big Sean and there's a lot of the N word. One of the boys start...

Beyonce. Tuesday Night. Flawless. The Mrs Carter World Tour was amaze balls! The amount of energy that lady has is incredible. There is something about Beyonce that makes you feel empowered to be a female. I honestly believe part of her calling is to make women be proud to be women. The joke is I don't even know what she does that makes females feel like that, maybe it's just her inner confidence. And when Jay Z came to join her on stage for 'Drunk In Love' it was extremely cute. It didn't even matter that Aleta and I tried to jump seats twice and got kicked out of them or that I tried to get other seats by complaining to customer service that I was afraid of heights (they didn't care) because when she started singing...Wow. She is probably the only singer in the world, who sings better live than on a record. Hearing her on a CD doesn't do her voice any justice. The amount of people that fainted and were being escorted out. To faint for another human....the...

Happy Monday guys! Good day so far. I won £20 for creating the best collage of pictures from work AND my big plan to surprise someone worked out amazingly. A* to me! A few blogs ago I mentioned meeting publishers but I didn't go into detail...well when I was working at a bar, it was closing time and there were 2 people left at a table. I was talking to one of the regulars about my book and the 2 people were listening. They asked me if I was a writer and I said yes. They said they worked in publishing. I asked for who and they said....wait for it....HARPER FLIPPING COLLINS! So obviously cleaning up wasn't important anymore and I spent about 30 min talking to them about my book and they were lovely. We swapped email addresses and they told me to get my agent to contact their head of children's department. I did think that they wouldn't remember me the next day but they did and my agent got in touch. Turns out the head of kids was leaving for a holiday before Christmas,...

It's been a busy time so apologies for lack of blog but...I'M BACK!!! Wow, where should I start? Okay so the interview for Colourful Radio was very fun. They were so enthusiastic and welcoming. Was frightened I was going to miss it because I got a taxi there as I know I get lost going up the road but did the taxi driver not get lost! I can't be late for live radio for goodness sake. But praise JC cause we made it on time and the interview was fab. Co-Star Arts first term is going amazing, so much better than I thought it would go but we have some real talent and more people coming every week. We even made a profit which is a shocker and I have more dance work in general. It's funny every class I teach, the head of the company always wants me to make them a performance group loool. I guess I just need to accept that I am good at training kids rather than fight it. Luckily for me, most groups are amazing but one class it literally took them 15 minutes to get into ...

That should really be the new title because so much has been happening lately. My book has been advertised on lots of writing sites and is available globally. I know right!! I did my first school tour a couple of weeks ago on Roald Dahl Day at Globe Academy. See this is the thing about me, give me a room of hundreds of kids to teach dance too and it's a breeze, but a room with that many kids talking about my book. Oh dear. I got an email the night before the visit asking me to come, which was great but what the hell was I going to wear? My mum said NO CONVERSE. I barely own any other foot wear for goodness sake. I wanted to look smart but still me, so I ended up wearing a colourful printed dress, black blazer and brogues. I assumed it would be a class visit but I got there and they told me it was the school assembly. I almost died. Luckily it went well. The teachers were all dressed as characters of Roald Dahls - I liked the Oompa Loompa costumes best. I got to tell them about...

The Olympics is over and I can honestly say that I had no faith that London could pull it off. I'm being serious, I thought it would be an epic fail and the weather would be wet and the transport would be a mess. All the posters about 'Can you work from home?' really annoyed me. Come on, if I could work from home wouldn't I be working from home? BUT Team GB did us proud. Still can't believe this was hosted in Stratford!! At least it doesn't look as mash up. I really liked that Jessica Ennis's face was on the grass so it was the first thing people saw when they landed 'Welcome to our turf #HomeAdvantage.' I liked the subliminal threat. The opening ceremony was the best History lesson EVER. Saw a few of my friends dancing which was great to see and it made everyone appreciate how multi-cultural London is. Screw you BNP! Then when the flags came out, I had to stop and pause. Excuse me Puerto Rico had some hotties! I was definitely flying that flag. Fi...

I feel like having a right ol' rant today about London and how annoying it is at the moment. What happened to the days when guys would let you get on the bus first? (and not just because they're checking you out). Did I miss the message that said, when an empty bus pulls up, push everyone out of the way and if you have a buggy, use it as a weapon and attack everyone's feet! Or as you walk past people, don't leave them personal space just barge them with your arms or bag, which ever's best. Oh and if your kids are screaming down the bus at say 8.30 am, don't feel the need to attempt to quiet them down or at least look embarrassed. Better than sitting there and ignoring your 8 kids because you have perfected the art of tuning them out. I haven't! And this weather!!! I've been travelling from north to south all day and the buses are on a schedule beyond words. I got the strangest looks because I was grooving to my ipod in an attempt to stay warm. I really n...