Hi everyone!
When I talk to people about the process of producing a picture book, one thing that always surprises them is that there is usually no direct contact between the author and the illustrator. I understand that this is not the case in other countries, but in the UK most authors and illustrators will only communicate indirectly through the publisher and it’s not unusual for a picture book to get published without the author and the illustrator contacting each other, let alone meeting face to face.
I’ve always found this lack of direct contact a little frustrating, as do other authors and illustrators I’ve met. So in recent years I’ve taken the initiative and written several stories in direct collaboration with an illustrator from the start. I’m pleased to say the first of these projects, MONSTERS - An Owners Guide has just been published. You can read more about it below.
OUT NOW
  MONSTERS - An Owner's Guide
UK Hardcover & Paperback Picture Book
HAVE YOU EVER WANTED YOUR OWN PET MONSTER? With a Monstermatic toy you can experience the thrill of caring for a huge, half-crazed creature in the comfort of your own home.
Conceived in collaboration with illustrator Mark Oliver, who also illustrated Tom’s Clockwork Dragon, MONSTERS - An Owners Guide is a user manual for a marvellously monstrous mechanical toy. As well as instructing how to assemble and operate a monster, this picture book shows the chaos that follows when one particular monster is delivered to a quiet suburban home.
For the book’s artwork, Mark created excerpts from the user manual on separate pieces of paper, cutting, staining, tearing and even burning the edges of some pieces before combining them with painted illustrations.
The book features easy to follow instructions on how to assemble your monster. |
The book is published in both hardcover and paperback by Macmillan in the UK.
  This Way Ruby!
US Paperback Picture Book
Scholastic have just published a US paperback edition of the second Ruby book This Way Ruby!
Set when Ruby is a young duckling, this story tells how the slow and steady heroine comes to the rescue of her more impetuous siblings when they race off to explore the lake.
 I Love You Always and Forever
UK Board Book
Gullane have just published a UK board book edition of my picture book I Love You, Always and Forever.
It’s the story of a father mouse and his daughter, Longtail and Littletail, playing in the forest. Although Littletail is good at their games, Longtail is always better. Longtail assures her that this won’t be forever. But at the end of a busy day, as Littletail curls up in their nest, Longtail reminds her of the one thing that will stay the same - always and forever.
WORK IN PROGRESS
I was meant to start work on the next stage of my current pop-up book, Five Dreaming Dinosaurs, last autumn, however the illustrator was running late on another project so the work was rescheduled for this April.
This left an unexpected gap in my workload that I put to immediate use writing two new Mole and Friends stories. One of the stories was accepted by Walker books, Mole’s UK publisher, and will become the fifth Mole and Friends book. Illustrator Vanessa Cabban has already began work on the book, which is currently titled A Secret Worth Sharing. I won’t say any more about it now - except that it introduces a new character!
Having done that, I decided to devote most of the remaining time to a children’s science fiction novel that I’ve had on the go for the last two years, but have been too busy with other projects to stick at for any decent length of time. So far I’ve written five chapters and hope to pick it up again once the next stage of pop-up work is out the way.
That’s it for now. I’ll be back with another newsletter in the autumn.
All the best
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OTHER NEWS
Someone Bigger still flying from the shelves!
 For the fifth year running kite-flying picture book Someone Bigger is my most borrowed book from UK libraries. My five most borrowed books are shown below.
Book Title |
Nº of
Loans |
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29,269 |
|
19,190 |
|
18,918 |
|
15,450 |
|
14,230 |
I also crept a few more places up the Most Borrowed Authors chart to number 187.
WEB WATCH
Poly Bernatene Calendar
If you don't already have a 2010 calendar, you might want to grab yourself a copy of illustrator Poly Bernatene's which Poly has made available as a free download.
The calendar features images from 12 of Poly's recent projects including one of his illustrations (shown above) for our forthcoming picture book The Princess and the Pig.
ON SITE
Prize Competition
The last Prize competition was won by Fiona Waterworth who will receive a signed hardcover of Leaf Trouble.
The new competition is for a signed hardcover of the new UK Hardcover edition of my picture book MONSTERS - An Owner's Guide (featured opposite).
As usual, all you have to do to enter is answer a multiple-choice question, the answer to which can be found on the site.
Monstermatic Match & Dispatch Game
I’ve also created a new memory game to mark the publication of MONSTERS - An Owner's Guide.
Players must find matching pairs of monsters from the book to complete the game.
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