As a mother of four, most of my writing is completed at home during school hours, playgroups or lunchtime naps. I never really sit at my desk all day long, it’s more a couple of hours snatched here or there throughout the day. Actually, for me, being at my desk is a complete treat as it means the kids are busy, and I have time to myself to focus on my series of Chinese study storybooks, Max and Mei. I am also a complete caffeine addict, and so will always make a cup of coffee before attempting to concentrate.

The most important and difficult part is the plot. I think about this constantly before I even try to start writing the new story. Luckily for me, at the conception of the Max and Mei: Chinese Zodiac Series, my son and his best friend were both attending Chinese speaking schools, which provided a wealth of material. Each tale in the books is based on their real life conversations and experiences. For example, in the Monkey story a pack of monkeys surround the car and one steals Max’s hat – this was based on my terrifying experience at ‘Monkey Mountain’ in the New Territories. Similarly, the Goat story is set during winter at the Great Wall of China, a place I visited with my husband and was blown away by its beauty. Since I am continually surrounded by children (mainly of whom are native Chinese speakers or learning Chinese), I listen carefully to their conversations or watch how they react to different situations, adapting this to the dialogue and incidents in Max and Mei.

Likewise, Chinese festivals can trigger off ideas such as the Rat story, which focuses on the Mid-Autumn festival where the rat ends up eating the moon cakes; while the Dragon story revolves around the Dragon Boat Festival (Max and Mei find a baby dragon in a cave). Interestingly enough, the Pig story came around as a result of a comment my son made to me at his school’s Chinese New Year party. It was the year of the Pig and the students had to make papier mache pigs to bring to class. My son said to me ‘Mummy, wouldn’t it be funny if someone bought in a real pig!’ I then based the entire pig story around this remark, with Max’s friend bringing their pet pig into the classroom.

Once I have the plot in my mind I will actually sit down to write. The routine is to put down on paper the 16 lines of each story in English first. It is always a challenge to create an engaging story using simple enough words for children, many of whom are learning Mandarin Chinese as a second language. Once the first English draft is complete, I will then discuss the plot with anyone who will listen, mainly my husband and my elder children, ages 5 and 3. Then, I ask as many native Mandarin speakers as possible for their input, and loosely translate the story with my wonderful Chinese teacher, Hui Lin, to make sure it works. The story is then approved by my publisher P3 and translated in-house. Afterwards, I return to Chinese teachers for more advice on the translated version, before it is finally ready for Mariko Jesse to start the hard work on her enchanting illustrations.

My days are never the same as I do not have fixed working hours. I try to be as organised as possible with my time, but am often rushing out the door, late for school pickups, soccer lessons or feeding the babies. If I’m honest, it’s all pretty chaotic – but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Martha Keswick is author of the Max and Mei Chinese study books series, www.maxandmei.com