Blood and Biscuits

Gosh, doesn’t time fly when you’re not updating your blog? I’ve been busy drawing, both sketching out new characters (see here) and working on the final illustrations for Dan and the Dead. My new blog banner is a spin off from that, if you’re curious.

Anyway, after so much writing over the last year, it feels good to go back to mostly drawing. And once again I’m struck by one enormous difference between the two activities.

I need silence to write. If possible, I also need to be alone in the house. There’s absolutely no question of listening to music. The only sound should be the scrape of dry fingertips on the keyboard and the steady drip drip drip of blood as it sweats out of my forehead (it’s probably just as well I’m on my own).

Drawing, on the other hand, is next to impossible for me if I don’t have music. And if you want to phone me while I’m sketching, then fine, go ahead -- I can hold the phone in my left hand and chunter for hours while my right hand carries on. In fact, just pop round. You can stay and listen to the radio with me, to this and this and this, and then we can chat as the coffee-break kettle steams and hopefully agree that the one thing that really puts the ‘great’ in Great Britain is the wonderful, inestimable, sanity-saving BBC. I’m sure they had illustrators in mind when they invented it.

The phrase ‘back to the drawing board’ normally has negative connotations. But not for me:-)

Puffin in the Snow

I was going to write an essay on the iconography of snow in children's literature, but then I thought, nah, and took my little boys out to play in it instead.  Far better use of my time!

Haunting My Younger Self

I have been thinking a lot about time travel lately. This isn’t surprising, given that I’ve just written a book in which the characters can visit their younger selves -- and their ancestors -- in the form of ghosts. What would you do, if you could do that? And what would I say if I got the chance to haunt myself at the beginning of my efforts to write fiction? Apart from ‘boo!’ that is.

I remember that beginning quite clearly -- it was the start of 2005, a year and a half after I’d moved to France. I was house-sitting alone for a couple of weeks, trying to meet an illustration deadline and walking someone else’s dog.  On those daily tramps through the woods, I came to realise that not only did I have a whole novel-sized story rattling around in my head, I was also no longer afraid to try writing it down.

Now that I am on the point of seeing my first book reach print (not the book mentioned above, naturally), I can look back over the whole experience and draw some conclusions. So, as a time-travelling ghost, what writing/crafting/story-telling tips would I give my younger self when I appear before him in the woods? Before my younger self passes out from shock, I think I could get across at least five:

1 – Storytelling trumps everything.

…especially when you are writing for a young readership. And I mean everything. It’s more important than historical (or contemporary) accuracy, more important than the things you worry you should be writing about, and certainly more important than the demands of your ego. People NEED good stories. Just be grateful for the chance to supply them.

2 – Don’t aspire to be a great writer, aspire to be a great story-teller.

 …and don’t call it ‘writing’, call it ‘work’. Above all, don’t aspire to be a writor (with an ‘o’). Writors (with an ‘o’) are poncy people who ‘commune with their muse’ and complain about wine. Instead, go into the ring bare knuckled, and don’t come out till your book is lying face-down in the blood and sawdust. That’s the work. Now you can drink the wine.

3 – ‘Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie’

Okay, I stole this one from Stephen King, but my younger self doesn’t know that. It's time he did. Let’s hope he’s taking notes.

4 – Plan ahead.

…even if it doesn’t come naturally. You don’t have to stick to the plan, just give yourself a clear sense of what you’re aiming for. Trying to make up a complicated plot as you go is a bit like brick-laying in the dark. You wouldn’t build a house that way, so why do it to build a world?

5 – Listen to criticism. Also, BOO!         

Big Breakfasting

I went to the Chicken House’s Big Breakfast event last week. And look, I spotted a copy of my book! Well, okay, it was just a spiral-bound printout, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything of Haunters on paper, so it was still memorable. I was even asked to sign a few.

These Big Breakfasts are all about bringing authors and their books together with interested parties from the world of children’s literature. There were croissants, there were readings, and there was the great Barry Cunningham to make it all sparkle.

The Chicken House’s list for this year seems very strong, and a few titles particularly caught my eye: Freaks by Kieran Larwood (last year’s Times Chicken House Fiction Competition winner), Girl About Time by Kerstin Geir (best-selling time slip romance first published in German in 2009), Floors by Patrick Carman (madcap goings-on in the barmiest hotel in the world) and Muncle Trogg and the Flying Donkey by Janet Foxley (the sequel to the wonderful Muncle Trogg, and which the author kindly inscribed for my son (who adores Muncle and anything to do with Mount Grumble)). But those were just the few books I snaffled on my way out. The rest look great too. I just hope Haunters won’t let the side down when it’s finally published in May.

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

I was very pleased to be able to go to the launch -- at Heffers in Cambridge -- of Dave Shelton’s charming and delightful illustrated novel, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat. And it was lovely to meet so many old friends from art school and beyond. Though wishing to spare the author’s blushes, everything about the book is lovely too.

First there’s the title, which is itself a definition of what ‘high concept’ is all about. Then the cover is a jaw dropper, not only because it’s stylishly understated, but because publishers are thought to be allergic to anything but ‘play it safe’ these days. Then inside… well, inside there’s humour, humanity, allegory, a sea monster, fly-fishing with a rubber duck, a very strange sandwich, and much more besides, all peppered through with fine drawing. And some cracking one-liners too: “The boy managed a half-smile (he would save the other half for later)…”

For children and grown-ups alike, especially if they appreciate good design with their future classics. Buy it or find out more here or here. And you can see pages from Dave’s sketchbooks on his excellent blog. And if that isn't enough, Sarah McIntyre has written a much more fullsome acount of the launch, with photos and cake and everything!

Happy New Year! And...

Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you a breakdown of the last 12 months. For me, 2011 was all about 2012 anyway. And I’m not going to be making any resolutions either (beyond the usual desire to increase brain activity whilst decreasing stomach usage). I just hope you all have a good time ahead, and can keep positive. Don’t let the tabloids get you down.

To set my blog going again, I wanted to post something about a twelve-year-old sketchbook blogger called William Sedgwick. Only, to do that I had to wait till he’d turned thirteen. His age is relevant because William recently suffered the indignity of having his long-standing blog and g-mail account summarily deleted by Google because he was ‘underage’. By two months. That’s DELETED, not frozen or suspended. And how was this young hoodlum found out? He was honest about his age whilst trying to upload a film to You Tube. Clearly the action of a dangerous subversive.

Anyway, now that Will’s matured overnight to be a responsible member of the blogosphere, I’m happy to say he has founded a new blog: Drawing Lizards. Please take a look – he has a fine and confident line, and a fearless eye. But after being slapped by Google, even Will could do with a boost. And he deserves more followers too, having lost the following he’d carefully built up. Will’s an old friend (is that okay, Google?) and I’ve seen many of his sketchbooks, indeed, been there when he drew in some of them. You won’t be disappointed by his blog, I promise.