Category Archives: Events

Spring 2021

The last twelve months have been very busy for me, possibly the busiest I’ve had, which makes me feel very lucky considering how tough it’s been for others recently. I think I’m right in saying there will be a total of five books with my name on published in 2021 – a personal record – and I’ve five books still to illustrate before the end of the year, as well as another one to write. And that doesn’t include ideas in development that have to be slotted in somewhere.

Additionally, we moved house just before Christmas, leaving London behind for the seaside town of Brighton. Everywhere was shut because of the the country being in lockdown, so it’s been a slightly odd experience. Even though we’ve lived in Brighton for four months, lockdown has meant we haven’t really had the chance to properly explore it, aside from the sea front, so I don’t feel quite settled in yet. The house needs some renovation work so there’s been plenty to occupy the weekends, however.

Here’s what’s happened since the summer:

October: The Naughtiest Unicorn & the Spooky Surprise, book seven of The Naughtiest Unicorn series came out. It was a Halloween-themed book with plenty of pumpkins, scary stories and dressing up fun. There are two more books in the series out in 2021, the next in July.

February: The book I illustrated for TV doctor and paediatrician Dr Ranj Singh was published. How to Grow Up and Feel Amazing went straight to number two in The Sunday Times children’s books bestsellers list, and has been a stunning success for Dr Ranj. He worked really hard during the build up to publication day – there wasn’t a TV or radio show where he wasn’t plugging the book! I had a nice message from him, thanking me for my efforts, as well as an acknowledgement in the book itself, which I’m really grateful for.

How to Grow Up is aimed at boys aged 10+ and covers every aspect of being a teenager, from body changes, to mental health and relationships. It’s very well written, warm and engaging, and while aimed at boys would be useful for any family with a teen asking those awkward questions. There’ll be more Dr Ranj news soon…

March: I did my first ever virtual event for the Oundle Festival of Literature, a live webinar on World Book Day talking about my work and how I get my ideas. There were about 400 children watching, some at home and some in school. I’d been a bit unsure about virtual events, as some of my author friends have had mixed experiences. Talking to a silent camera is not quite same as talking to a room full of excited children, but I think it went well and was certainly expertly organised by Helen Shair. You can judge for yourself as the event was recorded and you can watch along here:

Behind me you can see my new workspace, up in the attic of our home. It’s a cosy, well-lit spot, and although I can’t see the sea, I enjoy spending time there.

Speaking of World Book Day, there were plenty of Naughtiest Unicorns running around as part of the festivities. It’s always brilliant to see people dressed up as characters from books you’ve worked on, and Mira and her friend Dave the Unicorn appear to be real favourites. Here are some of them I spotted on Twitter:

April: Bringing things up to date, April saw the launch of The Smidgens, the start of a new series written by me and illustrated by Seb Burnett. It’s set in the same universe as my Dundoodle Mysteries series but is a separate story, and has a slightly different tone – still fun and filled with adventure but slightly more thoughtful, as I delve into the characters thoughts and feelings a bit more than previous books.

Smidgens are tiny people who live amongst us, the Big Folk,  but we can never spot them as they disguise themselves as insects and other creepy crawlies. Gafferty Sprout and her family think they’re the last Smidgens in the world until Gafferty discovers clues that there might be other Smidgens out there, and then she’ll stop at nothing to find them, even if it means a perilous journey into Big Folk territory… It’s a story about loneliness and finding your place in the world, and the responsibility that goes with it. I’m really looking forward to seeing what people think about it.

I should mention I absolutely love Seb’s illustrations, they’ve really brought the world of the Smidgens to life. Here is the Roost, the home of one of the Smidgen clans who all disguise themselves as birds:

And here are the villainous ghosts, Totherbligh, Hinchsniff and Peggy Gums. They’re so creepy!

I was completely delighted and honoured to discover that Blackwell’s Books have chosen The Smidgens as their children’s book of the month for April. It means such a lot when a bookseller gets behind a book and I’m really grateful – and as bookshops are finally about to reopen, it will hopefully be a big boost for The Smidgens too. Thank you, Blackwell’s!

I’ve created some activities to go with the book – a PDF containing story-making ideas, games and puzzles. It can be downloaded here. You can find all the buying information here.

Back for another update later in the year!

Summer 2019 Update

The year is whizzing by in a rather startling way and I’m very behind with my blog. I could blame my disorganisation or I could blame this guy, who happens to be my namesake:

This is Dave the Unicorn who, along with his BFF Mira, is the star of The Naughtiest Unicorn, a series of books written by Pip Bird that I’m currently illustrating. Dave and Mira meet at Unicorn School and have a bunch of silly adventures, mostly involving glitter, doughnuts and trouble!

There’s an interview with Mira and Dave here! Dave spends most of his time scowling, eating and farting. I’ve no idea why I was given this illustration job…

There are SEVEN books in the series, and they’re all out in the next year or so – that means lots of drawings of unicorns and rainbows which is keeping me very busy indeed! The first and second books are out already and the third appears in shops in September – you can’t miss them as they’ve all got very shiny covers. Perfect early reads for unicorn fans aged 6 and upwards.

But what’s happening in Dundoodle?

Meanwhile, The Dentist of Darkness had been out in the world for a few of months and appears to be going down well. I did some launch events at a few schools in north London, that coincided with World Book Day, that were exhausting but a lot of fun.

The story centres around Unquiet Night which happens to be very soon (the first Tuesday of the school holidays, as every Dundoodledonian knows)! It’s the night when tree-spooks, bog-people and other wyrdi-folk appear and dance their wyrdi-dance through the darkness of the forest.

Everyone in the town will be baking Gingerbread Dragons, amongst other goodies, to celebrate in the Unquiet Night festival held in Dundoodle’s main square. And they’ll have their own dance around the streets, as so brilliantly illustrated by Claire Powell:

You can make your own Gingerbread Dragons with the recipe from my DoD activity pack, available to download from here. As well as the recipe, there are puzzles and story-making ideas – ideal for keeping bored minds busy during the school holidays. If you need more things to do the CFG activity pack is here. I’m going to expand on the activities section of my website, to include more creative writing advice, so keep an eye on that if you know any budding writers.

I’ve also had to do some travelling and events back in May, thanks to the award nominations that The Chocolate Factory Ghost has received. I didn’t win anything (apart from the runner-up sparkly glass thing that’s the size of an egg from the Leeds Book Awards!) but it was great to meet all the children from the local schools who’d participated and sign all their books. I got more reviews than anyone else on the Leeds Book Awards website (not all of them good, mind you – young reviewers have very firm ideas about what they like!) and it was wonderful to know that my story had got into the hands of so many enthusiastic readers. Here’s a couple of photos taken at the ceremony:

Then in Surrey, I went on some school visits for the Surrey Children’s Book Awards, as well as popping into the wonderful brand new library at Horley:

Finally, the third Dundoodle Mystery is on the long road to publication – the text was signed off back in April and the illustrations are underway. And I can reveal its title: The Revenge of the Invisible Giant! Ta-daaa! Here’s the official blurb:

When a batch of his experimental sweets goes wrong at the McBudge Confectionery Company, Archie needs a distraction. And when he hears about a book of magical wisdom lost in a tunnel beneath the mountains, Archie is determined to find it. It’s DEFINITELY so he can be the best magical guardian of Dundoodle that he can be and DEFINITELY NOT so he can turn tree branches into flying surfboards. Only trouble is, the key to open the tunnel was broken into four pieces hundreds of years ago and hidden.

Archie, Fliss and Billy set out to find the pieces of the key, but why was the tunnel sealed off in the first place? And what is the deep, sinister, MOUNTAINOUS voice Archie keeps hearing on the wind?

This is a fast-paced, action-packed story that I’ve stuffed with magic and fun, and has a huge cast of mermaids, selkies, warlocks, golems, gods, druids and, of course, giants. It’s not out until next April but it’s already available for pre-order now from the usual places, but please do use your local bookshop if you have one. All the info on ROTIG can be found here, which I’ll keep updated as best as I can.

I’ll finish with the bittersweet news that this will be the last of the Dundoodle Mysteries books, but…. it’s not the last of the tales of Dundoodle! I’m not allowed to say more just yet – something tantalising for the future…

Winter 2018 Update

It’s been a busy year and lots of good things have happened, though I feel like I’ve been chained to my desk lately. Here’s what’s being going on since the summer.

Scotland visit

In August we paid a visit to Fife for a friend’s wedding. It was a chance to visit in person a place I had discovered when writing my first draft of The Chocolate Factory Ghost. When I came up with the story, I only had a vague idea of how the little town of Dundoodle looked. Originally, there was no chocolate factory at all, and Dundoodle was a fishing village, rather than in the Highlands. When searching online for images of Scottish fishing villages, Crail would often pop up. It’s very picturesque and, as it was only a shortish drive from the wedding venue, it wasn’t too difficult to go and visit.

Above is one of my photos, but there are plenty more much better ones online. I love the stepped gables that give the houses a castle-y look. It’s very distinctive of Scotland and I picture Dundoodle with similar look and feel, even though it’s ‘located’ on the other side of the country, and surrounded by mountains. I’ve written before about how a strong sense of place can bring its own magic to a story, and that’s particularly true of the countryside around Fife.

The Dentist of Darkness

In other Dundoodle news, Book 2 of The Dundoodle Mysteries – The Dentist of Darkness – is at the printers. The art by Claire Powell looks a brilliant as ever and I’m pleased to say it’s going to look as spectacular as the first book! Everything is on schedule for publication day next March. Here’s what the cover will look like:

But there’s no rest: book three of The Dundoodle Mysteries is under way, though I’m finding it quite a challenge to write whilst doing other work projects simultaneously. I’m not very good at multi-tasking but I’m hoping it should all be done by January. It’s set in the spring, and has a watery theme – but my publisher has demanded that there are plenty of sweets in it too!

The audiobook of The CFG has been released, with superb reading from award-winning actor Angus King. I think he had quite a bit of fun doing it, judging from some of the character voices. You can listen to a snippet:

The Dutch edition of the The CFG came out at the end of September, translated by Sandra Hessels (who also translated my Monster & Chips series). The book is called The Secret of the Sweet Factory (Het Geheim van de Snoepfabriek). It’s so exciting to see foreign editions. The Dutch version is in hardback which is always nice. The German edition – Das Karamell-Komplott, translated by Leena Flegler – is out in February 2019.

Cheltenham Literary Festival

I really enjoyed taking part in the Super Sleuths panel at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October. Actor and author Andrew Clover chaired, and Lauren St John and Lisa Thompson also took part. It was a lot of fun talking about how we write and what makes for a good detective story, and wonderful as always to meet some of our readers. It was also wonderful to do an event where I just had to sit and chat. If I’d had a mug of tea it could almost have been relaxing. Here’s a fuzzy photo. I’m wearing a cobwebby shirt specially for the occasion.

Awards!

Finally, some lovely news I received a week or so ago: The CFG has been shortlisted for two book awards! It’s in the running for the 7-11s category of the Leeds Book Awards, and also for the Surrey Libraries Book Award 2019. I’m up against some very strong competition so I don’t think I’m being too modest in saying I haven’t a hope of winning, but it’s still a great honour. However, both awards ceremonies are on the same day so I’ve a tricky choice as to which to go to! A nice problem to have.

I hope you have a great Christmas break and a brilliant 2019!

The House of Chocolate


Last Saturday, Claire Powell and I went to Bournville, home of Cadbury’s chocolate factory, for a rather fabulous event held at Selly Manor. This Tudor manor house (it actually dates back to at least 1327, but has had alterations since) was transported in the early 20th Century to Bournville from nearby Bournbrook. George Cadbury wanted it to be one of the centrepieces of Bournville village, and in doing so saved it from destruction.

Bournville is an amazing place, a model village built by Cadburys for their workers. It’s very picturesque, with plenty of the Cadbury trademark purple in evidence, and well worth a visit if you’re visiting Cadbury World nearby.

For our event, organised by Sarah Mullen of the Busy Parents Network (who also organise the Bournville BookFest), Selly Manor had been transformed into Honeystone Hall! (You can see the sign over the door way below.) It was just part of a day of chocolate-themed events taking place in the Hall and its gardens.

There were chocolatey cake stalls, a demonstration from a Cadbury chocolatier, a poetry workshop and a treasure hunt trail based on The Chocolate Factory Ghost. Along with our own drawing and story-making session in the adjacent hall, the Minworth Greaves.

The chocolatier in action. He showed how to temper chocolate to make it shiny and smooth for use in cooking. The smell in the hall was amazing!

Birmingham Poet Laureate (and boxer) Matt Windle turned the children into ‘chocolate rappers’ with his poetry workshop. Over lunch he talked about his work in schools and prisons, connecting people with poetry. It was very inspiring to listen to him. Also he divulged the secret to his sculptured moustache: a handy Pritt stick!

Claire led the children in a monster-making session, before I did some interactive story-telling with volunteers from the audience. There was lots of imagination at work.

It was such a beautiful setting for an event, and everyone made us feel very welcome. Thanks so much to Sarah and all the volunteers at the Manor for their hard work, as well as our Bloomsbury publicist Emily Moran who looked after us – a really special day.

All these lovely photos were taken by Dan Cottle. You can find him on Instagram here.

Bloomsbury Fiction Showcase

Last night, a clutch of slightly apprehensive authors faced the press, librarians, book buyers and bloggers at a comedy club in central London to talk about their new books, and I was privileged to be amongst them, talking about The Chocolate Factory Ghost.

It was a bit nerve-wracking, as we had a five minute time-limit to talk. It felt like were on the Dragons’ Den TV show, but the Bloomsbury Kids’ Fiction Showcase was thankfully filled with friendly, supportive people.

My general aim for these kind of events is ‘don’t look like an imbecile’ and I think I did ok. It was nice chatting to everyone afterwards too.

Here’s a couple more pics from some audience members:

Me with Katherine Rundell, James Campbell, Mark Powers, Laura James, librarian Georgiana Martincu, A.F. Harrold, Sibéal Pounder and Jo Simmons.

Thanks to the good folk at Bloomsbury for organising a fun evening.

Quick Post

Last night I went to the launch for Katherina Mannolessou‘s Look for Ladybird in Plant City at Gosh! Comics in London.

It’s a gorgeous-looking book. Above is author Katherina giving a speech with editor Kate Davies (left) of Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.

Molly Jamieson and Emily Talbot from United Agents, with authors Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Sarah McIntyre.

An interior of the book (click for a bigger version) – so much work! It’s amazing. Congrats, Katerina!

Spring happenings

Here’s what has been happening with me for the first part of this year.

When I’m a Mummy Like You!, the picture booked created by me and Francesca Gambatesa was released into the wild in February! We had a launch party at Gosh! Comics in Soho to celebrate (pic by Sarah McIntyre). It’s also out now in the US as When I’m a Mommy Like You! You can read a lovely review at Bookblog Book Monsters here. Francesca spotted the book in Foyles window as part of a Mother’s Day display.

Meanwhile, I finished the illustrations for Tom Nicoll‘s Boyband of the Apocalypse that’s out in June, and I’m pleased to say there’s a sequel on the cards which I’ll also be drawing. I’m looking forward to that, as I really enjoyed working on Boyband.

Also in February, Sarah McIntyre kindly invited me to take part with her show at this year’s Imagine Festival at the RFH, along with Katherina Manoulessou and Stephen Collins.

We had to talk about our book characters and then lead the audience in a draw-along – the (huge) audience were very enthusiastic and some fantastic drawings were produced.

Read Sarah’s report here (from where I pinched these pics).

In March I had another big event at Leicester Author Week, organised by Whatever It Takes, an initiative to encourage reading within the city. I gave a talk to two sets of school children – about 400 children in all – about my work, followed by creative writing workshops. It was a busy day, but a lot of fun! Thanks to WIT for organising it, probably the best organised event I’ve been invited to. (Pic by WIT)

World Book Day (or at least, the UK version!) is in March and it always pleases me to see how many people dress up as Jampires, year after year. Here are some pics that appeared on Twitter:

So cute!

Currently, I’m working on the edits for the first book of my novel series with Bloomsbury books, which comes out next year. An illustrator has been chosen and I’m very excited about the whole thing. Fingers crossed that other people like it too!

Wrap-up

2016 is rapidly coming to its end and most people seem to be quite happy about that, as far as I can tell. It’s been a bit of a bumpy one, current affairs-wise, but 2017 promises more of the same. Let’s hope that cooler, wiser heads will prevail and that it’s not too troublesome.

For me, the second half of 2016 (as it’s been that long since I updated this blog!) was quiet, book-wise.  I was focused almost entirely on writing, something that makes me very happy! I can report that the first draft of the first of my two books for Bloomsbury has been handed in, and I’m awaiting the editorial verdict. I’m expecting lots of red pen as even I could see the flaws of this draft, but I’m looking forward to fixing things up with my editors’ help. I love the world I’ve created in this book and really enjoyed writing it, in spite of a few uneven sentences paragraphs chapters. I have to finish this book and hand in the first draft of the second book by June next year, so I’m expecting the first six months of 2017 to be spent tapping away on a keyboard…

…apart from January/February, when I’ll be working on the illustrations for this book written by Tom Nicoll. It’s very funny and I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty on the drawings. There are some great, quirky characters in it, which are always very satisfying to do. More info on that when I’m allowed to show it.

Speaking of quirky characters, I drew a whole bunch of them for Inktober. This is an internet community thing set up by artist Jake Parker. It encourages artists to create an ink-based picture every day for the whole of October. It’s a chance to draw just for fun, without the aid of a computer, and not be too precious about the splats and smudges. I’ve posted all thirty-one pictures on my Instagram account .

The Suspects no. 31 for #inktober #inktober2016 Phew! Finished – hard but good fun.

A photo posted by David O’Connell (@davidoconnelluk) on

The last Creature Teacher book was published in July. It’s now out in six languages (English, Turkish, Danish, Slovak, Hungarian and Vietnamese) which is very pleasing.

Writer Sam Watkins is currently working on a new series from Egmont: The Fintastic Diary of Darcy Dolphin which is out soon, and I’m sure will be… well, fintastic!

Jampires has become something of a Hallowe’en book – not quite what Sarah McIntyre and I intended, but I love hearing about little Jampires turning up at costume parties in October – there are more and more each year!

On the subject of Jampires, here is Mrs Coventry from St Joseph’s School in Keighley, Yorkshire, reading the book aloud for us:

Aliquam Tempus – Jampires from Albus Cubus on Vimeo.

A very impressive performance! I went to a workshop for children’s writers in October on how to inject a bit of drama into book presentations so I’m hoping my reading skills have buffed up a bit. It was hosted by the Golden Egg Academy who mentor up-and-coming authors through the writing and publication process. It was an excellent day and the Golden Eggers are a lovely bunch of people too. I’ve a big couple of presentations in March (among other things) where I need to step up my showbiz side a bit more.

My most recent public gig was at the brilliant Brentwood Children’s Literature Festival back in July, organised by Natasha and Jim at the Chicken & Frog Bookshop. It was very well-organised for a first-time festival and there was a great crowd at the Brentwood theatre to see me do my Monster & Chips comic-making spiel. Some fab comics came out of it too, my favourite being about a prince and princess who meet, fall in love… and are eaten by a giant fly. (Pic below by Natasha.)

Here are some more monster-y drawings that have been sent my way – firstly, this fearsome chap who comes with his own specials board (I love this colour combination!):

And also this brilliant comic featuring Fuzzby and pals (a couple of years old but which I only just found out about on the Imagination Project website):

Last, but definitely not least, I’m very excited about the next book from me and the amazing Francesca Gambatesa: When I’m A Mummy Like You! It’s out in early February (just in time for Mothering Sunday in the UK) and a bit later in the US – where it’s called When I’m A Mommy Like You! (obviously).

I can’t get over how super Francesca’s art is – there’s more at the book page. She’s done such a wonderful job with my rhyming nonsense and I hope people love it! There’ll be a launch party at some point which I’ll post about here when we’ve firmed up the details.

I’m going to be offline for the rest of the year but have lots of plans for 2017 so will be back refreshed and recharged in January.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful 2017!

 

When I’m A Monster Like You, Dad! – Out Today

Happy book birthday to us! Francesca Gambatesa and I have a new picture book in the shops today (and if you’re on the USA, it’s been out for a month already!).

wimly01

When I’m a Monster Like You, Dad! is about a little monster who wants to be just like his dad: BIG and BAD! But Daddy Monster just wants little monster to have fun. The words are by me and the beautiful artwork is by Francesca. I’m thrilled with how it looks! It’s been a long-timing coming (I wrote the text in 2013) but it’s great to see it finally in the shops -just in time  for Father’s Day (June 19th).

wimly02

We had a launch party at the wonderful Gosh! Comic Shop in London last Friday. Lots of people turned up and I did a dramatic reading of the book! It was a lot of fun – thank you to every one that came along, and thank you to Gosh! for being such good hosts.

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Francesca made some goody-bags with little note-cards and badges in. So cool!

Here’s me and Francesca, with monster ears, proudly holding our book baby (taken by Sarah McIntyre):

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There are a load of other great photos from the night here, taken by Gosh!’s resident photographer, Mauricio Molizane De Souza. Here’s one of us signing some books (fascinating fact: it was the first time Francesca and I had actually met!):

wimly_signing

All the buying information can be found here. Francesca and I will be at Village Books in Dulwich on Sunday 11th June at 11am for a story-telling session, and we’ll be making Father’s Day cards too, so do come along if you’re around. Toot-a-loo!

wimly03

Nice news

Blogging is less of a chore when there are lots of nice things to write about.

Firstly, lovely letters. Here’s a drawing from Theo, aged 7, a Monster & Chips reader. He’s drawn a brilliant monster with a snot-burger and chips. Great use of colours, too. You can almost smell the fart!

theo

barry_letter

I also had a very nice letter from Charlie, which was beautifully written, so I’ve taken extra care with my reply. Charlie, from St Bede’s School in Weaverham, said the Barry the cat was his favourite character in Monster & Chips so here’s a little picture of Barry that I drew at the bottom of the letter.

Recently, I finished the illustrations for the last Creature Teacher book. It’s a great series and I was over the moon when the first book won the Heart of Hawick Children’s Book Award! Woohoo!

I couldn’t be more pleased for writer Sam Watkins as it was her first published book. And I was completely bowled over when Sam tweeted about an animated trailer that the children from the participating schools had made. It’s absolutely amazing and I keep replaying it and having a chuckle!

Freshmade NYC are a cooking and craft studio that run cookery sessions for kids in New York City. They have a storybook cooking class, which sounds like a fab idea, and recently ran a Jampires doughnut making session! Here’s a pic from their Instagram feed:

Banana doughnuts! Yum.

What am I up to at the moment? I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately and a few weeks back finished a manuscript for a book idea that I’m really hopeful will prove to be publisher-friendly. It’s doing the rounds of publishers right now, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed and praying to the book gods that it works out.

I’m also working on a window artwork display for the nice people at Chicken & Frog bookshop in Brentwood. I visited them a couple of years back and am doing an event for the Brentwood Children’s Literary Festival which they are organising (tickets on sale!). It’s not something I’ve done before so it’s very exciting.

In the meantime, When I’m A Monster Like You, Dad! is out in the shops very soon! My advance copies arrived from the publisher today. Illustrator Francesca Gambatesa and I are hosting a launch event at Gosh! Comics in London on the evening of May 27th – all are welcome, so do come along if you can and say hello (and buy a book!).

WIMLY_party

A Late Catch-Up!

It used to be that I wrote blog posts as a way of procrastinating before work. Now I find that I’m procrastinating before writing blog posts. It does seems a very cumbersome way of communicating news in these days of Twitter and other social media. But it’s a useful way of recording what I’ve been up to so I’m going to keep at it, even if updates get a little few and far between.

Find me here:
Twitter
Instagram

I can be found in a couple of social media-type places (above) but here’s a more long-winded catch-up with some things that happened in the latter part of 2015. Mega-post alert!

Books

A second book of Sam Watkin‘s Creature Teacher series came out in August with me on art duties again. Creature Teacher Goes Wild is set at a theme park which meant lots of fun things to draw. Here’s a bit when Mr Hyde and the gang are on their way to Wilf’s Wild Adventure Theme Park – it gets messy pretty soon afterwards:

CT2_spread

There’s another Creature Teacher book out very soon – next week in fact! Creature Teacher Science Shocker introduces a new character who’s more than a match for Creature – but who is it?

The fourth CT book is due out in July and I’ll be drawing the illos for that any day – can’t wait to get started!

Writer Sam and I will be doing an event together at the Brentwood Children’s Literary Festival in July – come along and say hello if you can. Tickets are available here.

creature_teacher03

CT is also coming out in Turkish which is very exciting. I love seeing books I’m involved with coming out in different languages! You can find information on all the Creature Teacher books here, or on Creature’s very own website where there are a load of activities to do too.

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Speaking of foreign editions, JAMPIRES is going to be coming out in Korean which should be really interesting to see as it’s such an attractive written language. My fab co-author, Sarah McIntyre, and I donned our Jampire gear for a spooky Hallowe’en window-painting session at the wonderful GOSH! Comics in London back in October.

jampiresoct1501_tweaked

It’s very hard to paint on glass, never mind back-to front. I’ve borrowed these photos from GOSH’s Facebook page – they’re both taken by Mauricio Molizane De Souza and there’s plenty more of his ace work to be seen there too.

jampiresoct1502

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I’ve blogged previously about my friend Alex Milway‘s This Book is Funny initiative and was very pleased to be invited to join him and comics chum Gary Northfield at the Discover Children’s Story Centre‘s summer Storyfest that took place at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford in July.

funnysticker

We talked about our books – all of them funny books – having visited the schools involved in the previous weeks to see what kind of funny stories they could come up with themselves.

It had to be one of the hottest days of the year – not a day to be dressed up as a lion fighting a zebra Roman gladiator. Yes, dear reader, that is me in the furry onesie, having taken on gladiator Gary, and in the middle of my (very dramatic) death throes. A career highlight.

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Finally, I’ve recently got to see the artwork for When I’m a Monster Like You, Dad!, the picture book I wrote that is being illustrated by Francesca Gambatesa. It’s been ages coming (for publisher scheduling reasons) and I was over the moon to see the final images. Francesca’s done such a great job so I couldn’t be more happy!

The second book in our collaboration is in production now and will be out next year some time, but WIMLY (as I call it) is out in the beginning of June – just in time for Father’s Day. I’ll be talking a lot more about this before then, but here is one spread from inside just to whet the appetite:

Monster_Dad-INS-2

As usual, I have a page devoted to the book with all the buying information here.

Comics

I haven’t made any comics recently and actually took a break from even going to conventions in 2015. I’ve really missed being involved in comics and I don’t think it’s something you can ever really leave behind, although I know I’ve benefited creatively (and financially) from the break.

However, when my friend Richy Chandler asked me to take part in his anthology that came out in September there was no way I was going to say “No”! The theme of Richy’s book Tempo Lush Tales of the Tanoox was the idea of positive transformation, with the Tanoox being an emblem or totem of this change. I decided to do a short slice-of-life comic, a genre I’ve become more interested in over the years.

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Here’s a snippet:

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I’d like to do more with these characters, so might be tentatively dipping my toe in the murky waters of comics at some point this year.

TLTotT is a great anthology, with a diverse set of creators who’ve all taken very different approaches to Richy’s challenge. You can get a copy here, at various comic shops, or at any of Richy’s many convention appearances (and it’s worth meeting him in person as he’s such a nice chap!). His webcomic Lucy the Octopus is back next month after a break  so make sure you bookmark that for some future funny-aquatic-eight-legged reading.

Out & About

There was a bit of London-exploring done last year – quite a lot of it underground.

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We went on a tour of the disused Jubilee line Tube station at Charing Cross, that’s now used mainly for film-making (Skyfall being a recent example). We got to walk through the utility passages that stay hidden from passengers, although we could spy on them through the various ventilation grills that you see at the stations (but never give a thought to). The tunnels lead right underneath Trafalgar Square until you’re directly below the now-famous fourth plinth. Mind-boggling stuff.

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We also visited the deep level bomb shelter that was built underneath Clapham Common to protect residents from the blitz during WWII.

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Such a huge space! And very easy to get lost down there.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be stuck in the shelter when the bombs were falling.  The smell from all the people must have been a bit wearing, at the very least. This shelter was later used as a budget hotel for visitors to the Festival of Britain, and as a temporary home for the first Caribbean migrants to the UK, which is the reason that Brixton and that corner of London became centres of the Afro-Caribbean community. The shelter is one of eight that were built and still exist today – they are mainly used for archive storage, but I think TfL want to try and open more of them to visitors.

Lastly, a trip into the bowels of the iconic Tower Bridge to see the workings of the bascules (as the draw-bridge bits are called). You get to see the massive counterweights that were used in the steam-driven era, and the chamber into which the road disappears whilst its far end goes skyward.

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You can’t go in there when the bridge is open because you’d get squished!  You also get a chance to visit the old Victorian engine room, as well as the walkways over the road with their great views and rather sick-making glass floors.

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This publicity video gives a good preview of the tour if you fancy it:

Outside of London we spent our summer holiday in Blakeney, Norfolk. Brilliant beaches, lots of walks through wind and salt-blown scenery and lots of good food.

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The dog enjoyed it and so did I!

Now: time to look forward to the challenges of 2016. Onwards!

Mega-May Recap

Argh! Half a year gone and I haven’t achieved nearly enough, including blog posts. Here’s few things that have been going on:

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The first book of this series came out in April. It can sometimes be a bit confusing working on a set of books that are being published at relatively short intervals. Whilst book one was appearing in the shops I was working on the illustrations for book two and simultaneously working on the cover for book three! I keep getting the books mixed up in my head. Here’s a rough pencil-version of an illustration from book two, with the CT gang on the hunt for mischievous creature!

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Creature Teacher writer Sam Watkins had a very busy launch event at Thomas A Becket School in Worthing in May. She spent the whole day doing short events with children from years 1 and 3 – I think she was losing her voice by the end of it all.

I joined her for the afternoon sessions to do a bit of drawing whilst she read from the book. It was a lot of fun but quite exhausting! It was the first time Sam and I had actually met (she is lovely, thank goodness!). Sam even made some swirly biscuits to match the book cover design. I can personally vouch for how tasty they were.

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Here’s a pic of us at the end-of-day signing (we didn’t play the bongos, alas). Not sure who took this photo – apologies for pinching it.

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Our visit even made it into the Worthing Herald. Oh, the heady heights of fame. Here’s a clipping from Sam’s Twitter feed:

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(You can read the online version here.)

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We ran a competition at the school to design a cover for a Creature Teacher book – you can see all the entries at the CT website here. I love how much energy there is in all the drawings, but then it is a very energetic book!

More recently, Sam and I visited Brighton Waterstones for a drawing and reading session. Everyone got to design their own Creature Teachers, drawing or doing a bit of collage.  Here’s some photos from Sam’s Twitter:

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It’s great doing events with someone else – you get to bounce ideas off each other, as well as providing a bit of support. Sam and I will be doing more events together at some point soon.

Monster & Chips

I was thrilled to see Whitchurch School in Hampshire have been reading Monster and Chips as part of their Year 4 book group. You can read all about it here. The readers have been creating their own monsters and even making up their own ‘delicious’ menu:

  • Bashed Beetleburger AND CHIPS
  • Slimy Slug Surprise with antennae eyes
  • Eyeball soup with slug slime chips
  • Bogey burger gravy AND CHIPS
  • Smelly cabbage soup with poo plop croutons
  • Earwax tart

Poo plop croutons! Tasty. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book – I love seeing people’s reactions to it. Thanks to librarian and book evangelist Jo for the tip-off!

I was very pleased the group had read Jampires too! The US edition is out at the end of the month and my co-author Sarah McIntyre and I were very happy to have a nice review from Publisher’s Weekly.

Sarah has been very busy – and successful – with her Pictures Mean Business Campaign, trying to get more recognition for book illustrators in their contribution to a book’s success. You can find out more here, or follow the #PicturesMeanBusiness hashtag on Twitter.

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Sarah has a new picture book out in June: Dinosaur Police! I saw the print proofs for it a while back and it’s her best book yet – absolutely brilliant!

Red Alert! How will Dinoville’s police squad catch Trevor the T-Rex, who’s at the pizza factory, gobbling up all the pizzas meant for the town fair? Inspector Sarah Tops and Seargeant Stig O’Saurus are on the case!

This Book is Funny!

I’ve blogged previously about Alex Milway‘s initiative to promote funny books for children. He’s been sending out thousands of stickers to schools and libraries so they can help their readers find the books they love.

Alex has also produced a couple (so far) of podcasts full of comedy sketches, readings and interviews. I’ve written a bit material for him for a future recording featuring Fuzzby and Barry from Monster & Chips. Need a laugh? Then follow Alex’s Soundcloud for guaranteed chuckles.

Out and about

I try to get away from my desk when I can. Whilst in Brighton for the Waterstones shindig I popped along to the Brighton Illustration Fair, part of the town’s fringe festival.

It was good to catch up with comics chums Joe Decie, Warwick Johnson Cadwell and Amber Hsu, who all had tables, as well as bump into Matt Baxter (who designed the This Book Is Funny logo).

Lots of lovely things to see, but I was very much taken with the drawing activity they had: rotating towers of cardboard boxes that you could draw on in a heads-and-tails fashion. Worth bearing in mind for a future event.

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Nunhead Cemetery is an old Victorian graveyard near where I live. It was abandoned for years before the local council took it over and in the intervening years nature completely overran it, turning it into some kind of gothic film set.

Burials still take place there, but the council have wisely left most of the cemetery untouched. I think some bits are ‘managed’ to encourage some bio-diversity. It must be heaven for foxes, judging from the number I’ve seen there. You have to be careful in some parts in case you fall into an ivy-covered tomb!

I’ve been there several times (it’s good for dog-walking) but they had an open day in May, providing tours for those interested. I prefer to wander and soak up the peaceful/melancholy atmosphere (depending on your mood!).

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I’ve also made a couple of visits to the recently opened Sky Garden. It’a worth a trip if you’re able, as it’s free (though you have to book) and has one of the best views in London, in my opinion, plus added tree ferns.

 

Jampire Jamboree

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Yesterday was a bit of a busy one: off to Oxford for a workshop and ‘show’ (look at the purple-y poster I made for it!) at the fabulous Story Museum. It’s an amazing and highly unusual space devoted to story-making and telling, and a real gem amongst all of Oxford’s better known attractions.

I ran a comic-making workshop in the morning with a Hallowe’en-y/monster-y feel. Lots of keen comic-makers were there with loads of ideas – the beginning of a workshop is usually talkative and boisterous.

But the moment they had to get on with making their own comics the whole room descended into such an intense silence that I wished I’d brought some music with me!

And there were some fantastic comics made – we had some time at the end of the workshop for those brave enough to share their comics with everybody. Some were hilarious, some action-packed, some more gentle – I always try to get across that the great thing about comics is how versatile they are as a medium.
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I made a handout for the work-shoppers to take away. There’s a PDF version available to download from my activities page if anyone needs a bit of inspiration during half-term.

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One work-shopper brought along his collection of Monster & Chips books to be signed. I was so pleased to see how well-worn the covers were! Nice to meet you, Aydin! It was at that moment that Sarah McIntyre arrived for our afternoon event and she snapped me busily scribbling in the books.

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Then Sarah and I rushed off to do our JAMPIRES show! Our performance is still a bit wobbly in some places, especially after the last-minute addition of a Jampires song (!), but it all adds to the fun. I need to brush up on my tambourine skills, that’s for sure. Here’s a pic from after it was all over (pinched from Sarah) with some of the audience and their Jampire artwork:

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Sarah always manages to look so elegant in her costume whilst I just look a bit of a fool! Thanks to everyone who came along – both events were sell-outs – and huge thanks to the Story Museum for being such great hosts.