Meet the stars of my next book – Jamie, Billy and Grandad!
So far, I have written a first draft, edited it to within an inch of its life, done rough drawings for every page, and now done these colour prototypes of my three main characters.
Tomorrow I start the illustrations proper. I am determined that this time they’re not going to take a year to complete!
Looking forward to this next book, as I only have little boys to buy for, and the previous books, whilst gorgeous, would not have appealed to them. This one looks like it will be just the thing for my God sons. Can’t wait until it’s finished.
Thanks Gill, they may have a few months to wait, but hope they like it once it’s done! I would say, however, that ‘Isabella, Rotten Speller’ is in no way a ‘girly’ book; it’s really about having fun with words and letters. The fact that there’s a witch in it at all is entirely down to the fact that I wanted to make a joke about bad spells and bad spelling! Having road-tested it on a group of 5-7 year olds, I would say that the boys were just as engaged and enthusiastic as the girls. Which makes me think that I may have gone with the wrong title! For a long time it was called ‘Once upon a Rhyme’, but there were other books with this name and I was drawn to having a rhyming title that was a better ‘fit’ with ‘Hairy Fairy’. I am now thinking that may have been a mistake?! This self publishing lark is just one big learning curve!