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!
It was announced back at the beginning of the year but the Summer Reading Challenge has finally launched in England and Wales (Scotland started in June). The challenge is simple but needs a bit of stamina: read as many of these books as you can during the school summer holidays (and The Chocolate Factory Ghost is just one of them) …
The Beano is a sponsor of the challenge – my favourite childhood read – so it’s great to see The CFG on the list.
You can find all the details at the SRC website where you can sign up and find out more about the books, check out the competitions and other activities. Some libraries are running their own events as part of the challenge so make sure you’re a regular visitor so that you don’t miss out.
On the way back home from Bournville, I picked up a copy of The Guardian and was very pleased to see a plug for The CFG in its Best New Children’s Books supplement that launched Independent Bookshop Week, celebrating independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland.
Do make use of your local independent bookshop if you’re lucky enough to have one. Other bookshops are great too, but they’re all facing tough times competing with online retailers and won’t last on our high streets if we choose price over good service: many bookshops run homework clubs or book groups as well, and offer their premises for launches and other community events. It always warms my heart to see a town with its own bookshop – you can find your nearest one here.
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.
I’ve had to keep this a secret for so long so it’s a relief that the news is finally out: on Monday the new books for Tom Fletcher’s WHSmith Book Club were announced, and The Chocolate Factory Ghost was amongst them! I’m really thrilled and honoured that one of my books has been associated with such a high profile initiative – it’s very exciting!
Illustrator Claire Powell and I travelled to Wilmington Academy near Dartford which was hosting a launch event. We met Tom and all the other authors (above) whose books had been picked (all very pleased and excitable). We each had to do a presentation on our book to an audience of about 400 children: here’s Tom taking a selfie of all of us looking very relieved after the talks! (Photos by our lovely publicist, Lizz Skelly)
Then we went to the school’s lovely library to film some promotional material. Here’s me chatting to Tom about the book just before Claire did some choc-related drawing!
You’ll be able to watch all the videos over on Tom’s Youtube channel over the next couple of months. Tom worked extremely hard all day – he even appeared on ITV London News the next evening, promoting the Club. The CFG was very visible on screen – even getting its own close-up!
The Book Club picks get their own display stand in WHSmiths, where they can be bought as a bundle. There’s information about all the books on the WHSmiths site, including Tom’s thoughts on them. I noticed there are some teaching resources for The CFG there too, which I’ve not seen before.
Thanks so much to Tom and the WHSmiths team for having us and for all their hard work!
This means a lot to me personally as I know loads of people who have worked on The Phoenix (which is published by Jampires publisher David Fickling).
It’s a great comic filled with serialised stories, jokes and articles (and it’s ad-free too) and is very much recommended if you’ve haven’t tried it already.
It’s available in quite a few places but you can get it on subscription so it’s delivered to your door. (photo by our excellent publicist at Bloomsbury, Lizz Skelly).
2. The CFG has been nominated for an award! It’s on the longlist for the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award in the Read Aloud category. I’ve never had a book I’ve written nominated for an award before (Creature Teacher won the Heart of Hawick award for Sam Watkins in 2016) and although I’m under no illusions about it getting any further, I’m very much enjoying the moment.
My lovely publisher Bloomsbury are running a Chocolate Factory Ghost competition over on their Twitter account (@KidsBloomsbury) for this week only! There’s an entire hamper of luxury chocolate from Prestat up for grabs. It’s dead easy to enter, so if you’re on Twitter then hurry over and let them know what your favourite sweet treat is!
Also, clever illustrator Claire Powell has created a book trailer for The CFG – she’s so talented! I particularly love the music.
The Chocolate Factory Ghost didn’t have an official launch party, but illustrator Claire Powell and I did have some drinks and a social meet-up for some friends last night to mark the occasion. Here’s a couple of pics that my friend and Jampires co-author Sarah McIntyre took:
The second photo is of Claire and I with our with brilliant designer Andrea Kearney (left) and amazing editor Lucy Mackay-Sim (2nd left). Lucy told us that The CFG is already going to be reprinted which is great news!
And this morning, Claire spotted The CFG in WHSmiths children’s chart! It’s so exciting to see our book nestled amongst the celebrities and big name books. Fingers crossed it does well.
Finally – it’s out and in the shops! It’s feels like I’ve been talking about this book for years. It’s great to know people can now actually read The Chocolate Factory Ghost for themselves. Do buy it from your local bookshop if you can.
Huge thanks to my publishers Bloomsbury (editors Ellen Holgate and Lucy Mackay-Sim, publicist Lizz Skelly and team) for guiding the book into the world, and thanks of course to Claire Powellfor the fab illustrations that brought the world of the Dundoodle Mysteries to life.
It’d be great to hear what people think – if you’ve bought the book, a review on Amazon is always helpful.
If you tweet or Instagram a picture of yourself with the book, I’ll send you a nice, shiny signed bookmark. Just tag your pic with #DundoodleMysteries so I can find it.
The Chocolate Factory Ghost is out this week – it’s so exciting!
In this post, I thought I’d introduce the main characters of the story. Presenting the Dundoodlers (artwork by Claire Powell):
We meet Archie McBudge at the start of the story, when he discovers he has inherited not only the McBudge Fudge and Chocolate Company, with its factory and shops, but also the strange old house of Honeystone Hall in Dundoodle. Archie is unsure of his place in the world, and uncertain if he’s up to the challenge of taking on this huge responsibility. He’s quiet and thoughtful, but smart and with a steely side to his character.
Fliss Fairbairn doesn’t understand why Archie should get to inherit everything when he’s a seemingly undeserving stranger, but when Archie needs help she’s the first to come to his aid. Unlike Archie, she’s full of confidence and passion but also has a logical mind that’s great for solving clues.
Fliss introduces Archie to Billy Macabre (real name ‘MacCrabbie’). He’s an expert on all the weird and magical goings on in Dundoodle and the surrounding countryside. He’s slightly disadvantaged by being terrified of anything remotely spooky but his sharp intelligence is invaluable. He’s often the referee between Fliss and Archie’s sometimes antagonistic relationship.
There are lots of other characters too: funny, silly, magical, ghostly and just plain villainous. Meet them all in The Chocolate Factory Ghost.
She’s kindly answered some questions for a mini-interview. There are some sneak peeks of her work below, and you can see more in the online preview of the book.
Where are you from?
I’m a Northerner! Originally from a town called West Kirby on The Wirral, which is a peninsula sandwiched between Liverpool and Wales.
It’s a beautiful place with long coastal walks and spectacular views. It’s extremely peaceful and has a much slower pace of life – when I’m stuck on the tube in rush hour I often wish I was there instead!
My parents and school friends still live there and I visit regularly. My dad has been a printer all his life, though he’s now retired, and I worked for him when I was a teen in his factory. I loved it.
The smell of the ink, the sound of the machinery – sometimes when I buy a new book it has that ‘factory’ smell and it will remind me of that time. It’s no surprise that I’ve ended up in a print based job.
In ’98 I went to uni in Preston and studied graphic design. It was a very traditional course, weighted heavily toward typography and layouts. I lost count of the hours I spent hand drawing typographic layouts! It was an excellent foundation for the work I do now. I spent a few years as a graphic designer in a Preston agency and, moved to London in 2005 to study an MA in motion graphics. At the time, I wanted to work in TV which is what I did for almost ten years. I worked for an agency called Red Bee and I rebranded TV channels – CBBC, BBCThree, Nickelodeon (India), Dreamworks Animation to name a few. I enjoyed my time there but, as the years went on, I knew I didn’t want to do it forever and I started exploring different avenues. I dabbled in animation before signing up for a picture book course which changed the course of my life!
Where do you work?
I work upstairs in my flat in Acton! My commute to work is exactly eleven stairs 🙂
Goodness, this is always a hard question. With social media, we have exposure to so many great things, it can be overwhelming. I think it’s important to take your influences from a wide range of sources and I often take photos of random things and file them for when I need them. It might be a carpet with interesting colour combinations or a tiled floor with a cool pattern, the other day I screen grabbed a picture of Keira Knightly wearing a fabulous retro dress – that will probably end up somewhere…
At the moment I’m researching interior spaces and I’m being influenced by Tony Duquette, a fantastically flamboyant interior designer. I’m starting to put more pattern and detail into my work and I spend a lot of time on Pinterest looking at fashion and interior design. I’m always pinning things ‘just in case’.
Illustration wise, I love the work of David Roberts – his patterns and attention to detail are stunning and, the fact he does it all in watercolour Blows. My. Mind. My favourite illustrator is Arthur Rackham. His work is so exquisite, I could look at it for hours. I especially like his goblins and elves! I recently discovered the work of Melissa Castrillon and I thought her limited colour palettes were beautiful – I always use too many colours so it’s inspiring to see someone create stunning work with a small palette. I also went to the Tove Jansson exhibition recently and it was magical. I didn’t read her books as a child so it was a real eye opener for me. Such a huge volume of work, a real talent – you can’t fail to be inspired and influenced by people of that calibre.
You’ve worked in animation and graphic design – tell us about some of the projects you worked on.
Well, I wouldn’t class myself as an animator, though I have dabbled in it. It is a craft I have huge respect for. It’s time-consuming and you need to be an excellent draftsman with a lot of patience. I know this because I made a short film a few years ago and I massively underestimated the task! It took me four years to make, all whilst working full-time. There were times I thought it would never be finished but I was determined not to abandon it. It isn’t perfect and, if I did it again (which is unlikely!) I’d do it differently, but I’m proud I made it.
The film is based on true events. Set at the turn of the 20th Century it follows George Edalji, a young man who, after a series of disturbing events, is accused of a ruthless crime. He appeals to Britain’s most famous crime writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, for help. He embarks on a passionate campaign to clear George’s name and, well… I won’t give the ending away!
How do those experiences influence your illustration and book work?
Hugely!
Training as a graphic designer has definitely informed my illustration work. I was taught a very traditional approach, tight grids and layouts, lots of typography, often drawn by hand and the simplicity of ideas was drilled into me – it shouldn’t take more than a short sentence to explain your idea. Those things have stuck with me and I see them appearing in my work now.
I think I have a natural aptitude for showing character expression but working in TV taught me how to tell a story in a short amount of time. Storyboarding, sequencing, composition – all directly translate into my illustrations, especially children’s books where I’m telling a narrative over a series of page turns. I often think of my characters moving, I imagine how they would walk or react to a certain situation (sometimes I act it out!) and then I try to capture that in a single illustration. Expression is so important to me and I want it to be at the forefront of my work.
[From Have You Seen My Giraffe? text by Michelle Robinson, Simon & Schuster (July 2017)]
Even working for my dad, in his factory, has been incredibly handy – I understand the print process which helps a lot when you’re making books and delivering files. I never would have thought, when I was fifteen, that what I was learning would turn out to be so useful.
I used to feel disappointed that I was arriving at illustration a bit later in life, but now I see how the years of training in design and TV have been great ground work for where I’m at now.
[From Octopants, text by Suzie Senior, Little Tiger (July 2018)]
How do you approach illustrating a chapter book like The CFG?
It was my first chapter book so I was beyond excited. I’d done samples of the characters and one full-page illustration (the greenhouse) so when I was commissioned I already knew how the characters looked.
Bloomsbury sent me a detailed brief, for the forty interior illustrations and the cover. I enjoyed the process of working to a tight brief. There was heaps of room for me to play with but it made a nice change from working on a picture book where there’s a lot more freedom.
I started by roughing out all the illustrations, doing research as and when I needed to. I even used a monopoly house to help me draw the school from a top view perspective!
The roughs were sent for approval and then I started the finals.
Some illustrations I created as one drawing. Others, the cave and boat drawings for example, I did in layers, drawing the characters and backgrounds on separate bits of paper. I wanted some freedom to experiment with textures so I’d scan everything and then play around in Photoshop.
I used pencil, charcoal and graphite and I found it so enjoyable to be creating by hand, not on the computer.
The cover was a little tricky, but they do tend to be the hardest bit. I did quite a few versions until we settled on the final idea. I wanted to colour it all dark and spooky but Bloomsbury wanted it less Gothic so we settled on a fresher, friendlier colour palette which focuses on introducing the characters.
What else are you working on?
I’m working on two picture books at the moment – both top secret, of course! They’ll be finished in the summer. Then I’ll be working on CFG part deux and I’m scheduled to do another, top secret, picture book starting in October. I’m hoping I might get September off! Shock, horror! It would be nice to spend some time on my own projects, it’s hard to find time for them at the moment, though I’m not complaining.
Favourite sweet?
This is the hardest question…. I’m going with my childhood classic – toffee nut crumble. If you took a Twix, bashed it into pieces and then remoulded it into tiny log shapes you would have toffee nut crumble. It’s delicious. I also like chocolate covered peanuts. Oh, and fudge. And chocolate mice…
There’s less than a month until The Chocolate Factory Ghost is out in the shops, and I’ll be posting some special things here in the run up to its release.
Firstly, how about a preview of the insides of the book? Bloomsbury, my publishers, have put the first four chapters online, including Claire Powell‘s wonderful illustrations, so you can have a sneak peek.
The Chocolate Factory Ghost is published on April 5th (though I expect it will be in shops before then). All the info is here, including some lovely reviews.
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:
The cover of the The CFG is now on display at the Bloomsbury website so I think I’m allowed to show it off in all its glory: isn’t it fab?
Illustrator Claire Powell has done a wonderful job of creating the magical world of Dundoodle, and Archie and his friends, and the cover is the crowning glory. It will stand out very nicely on the bookshop shelves.
And news just in: The Bookseller‘s children’s books editor Fiona Noble has made The CFG one of her Editor’s Choices for April – woohoo! This is a big deal as The Bookseller is the magazine that all the book buyers and reviewers read. Might need a sit down.
I’m collecting all the reviews for the book on its page – there have been some lovely comments, and it seems like people really ‘get it’, which is always a relief.
There are a number of foreign editions in the works too, alonghttp://davidoconnell.uk/my-books/the-dundoodle-mysteries/chocolate-factory-ghost/ with an audiobook, all reassuring when you’re a nervous author about to release a book into the wild.
[Click on the image for a slightly more readable version of the catalogue.]
I’ll be posting more information when I can but for now, I’m keeping my fingers/toes/other bits crossed for October’s Frankfurt Book Fair, where I’m hoping some foreign publishers will be interested in buying rights.
