Writing prompt: Darkness

Another Ardagh and Elwick writing prompt: Darnkess

Ten minutes to come up with something. Here is mine:

I grew up in a house that made noises in the darkness. Creaking, mostly, of the bottom three stairs. I would hide under my duvet after Mum had turned the lights out, only my mouth and nose poking out so I could breath (I still do this when I’m sleeping alone, all these years later). My overactive imagination goes swimming in the darkness, diving into its depths and dragging scary things back up with it. I close my eyes tight and tell myself not to picture them, but then they are there and they are watching me. I try not to look. I try to think of something else instead. But they just stand there staring. Sometimes they move towards me. Slowly. I’m thankful that they very rarely run. If they ran I wouldn’t have time to reach my arm out from under the covers and turn on the lamp. Then they are gone, as quickly as they came. I blink as my eyes adjust to the light and I hear the silence I hadn’t noticed before, as my heart stops thud, thud, thudding in my chest. And I lie there, staring at the ceiling, too afraid to sleep. O_O

Getting lost in a drawing

Philip Ardagh and I have just started a weekly writing prompt. We take it in turns to choose a theme (often just a word or two) and have 10 minutes to come up with something. Fun.

If anyone who doesn’t draw has ever wondered what it’s like to get lost in a drawing....here’s mine.

Prompt: COFFEE

I draw the leaves one by one. The black ink stains my fingers. My left hand holds the handle of my coffee mug as though I am three years old again and clutching my mother’s hand. It tethers me to this world - this real world - as I carve the leaves across the paper, between the trees. The heat of the coffee against my fingers is the only thing that reminds me I am here, not there. And when it cools, I am lost in the forest I am drawing. I add trees and birds and the nests they have built between branches. I add shadows that fall across the forest floor and I shape them into monsters. And I remember a moment when I was younger, walking between the trees afraid and holding my mothers hand. Then I am back - here not there - as though I have been asleep, in a dream for a while. And my coffee is cold.

The Drawing Room

My studio is in the spare room of our house, opposite my daughter’s bedroom and its closed door is one of the first things she sees in the morning. She taps on it and says “drawing” and, on tip toes, pulls the handle and wanders in. I could keep her out but I like sharing this space with her. She’s 22 months old and now this room means “drawing” to her. She presses the button on the printer as she walks in. The one with the green flashing light. She’s not meant to but she has made a sort of routine for herself when she enters, much in the same way I have. She walks over to the desk chair and climbs up. It swivels slightly as she does. She never thinks to sit on the chair because that’s where I always sit. Instead she clambers onto the desk and plonks herself down, (I bend down to check it’s not bowing in the middle yet because it’s started to make a noise when she does that). I have a line of toys on my windowsill and she reaches for them, one by one. Sometimes she glances at me to check she’s allowed. She is. (Apart from two very special ones that she gently taps and says “Mummy”.) I’ve put the inks and the sharpies and the precious pens out of sight and she leans with outstretched hands for the most colourful implements she can find. She mostly likes the highlighter pens and the colouring pencils made entirely of lead that she shouldn’t really use because they’re fragile but I’m fond of how fond she is of them. And then she asks for paper and I pass her some.
Sometimes, before nursery, I have to check she hasn’t got highlighter pen on her knees from that mornings wander into the “drawing” room. She usually does.

Midnight Magic...the bewitching new series by Michelle Harrison, illustrated by me!

 Hooray! It’s not a secret anymore!

Introducing the first in the magical Michelle Harrison’s bewitching new verse series Midnight Magic!

This book has been a lot of fun to work on and I can’t wait for Trixie and her mischievously cat, Midnight, to be out in the world in October (I’ll be dressing as Trixie for Halloween this year and my black cat sidekick, Pippin will be playing the roll of Midnight!).

I made my dedication in the book to some friends, Ferg and Hannah, because while I was working on book 1, they found a lost and abandoned little black kitten in London. She had been shut in the gas meter cupboard on the outside of their small block of flats, without food or water for days. They searched for her potential owners, with no luck (that’s if she ever had any), then took her to the vet, who said he could take her to the cat shelter. Unable to keep her and determind to find her a happy home, they drove her up to Cardiff to live with me and Martin a few days later. She’s my most favourite and the best little drawing companion, when she’s not out chasing snails.

Here are a few little sneak peaks of the artwork inside:

INTO THE FOREST: A Willow and Blue adventure

So Martin and I moved out of London a few months ago. To the countryside! It’s quiet and peaceful and has been a bit of a lifestyle change for me. In a good way. Peace and quiet suit me. So do trees and animals and adventures to find mysterious creatures called Whompodomps. So I started a little comic about it. My name isn’t Willow (obviously) and I don’t have a pet bird called Blue (sadly) but I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with them….

Part one

BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE: STICK AND FETCH INVESTIGATE

So in case you missed it, this happy little book is OUT NOW! It’s my first foray into the world of fiction illustration and I’m VERY excited that it’s now out in the world.  I had so much fun working on this with Philip Ardagh and my tip top team at Walker Books, which is lucky because I’m about to start illustrating the second in the series...

Originally scheduled to be published in May this year, Walker Books brought it forward for the Dubai Lit Fest in March. Philip and I are now starting to get out and about doing Stick and Fetch events at schools and festivals in the UK, and having lots of fun with these new characters (and new props, because let's face it, who doesn't love an inflatable flamingo?) Any upcoming public events will be listed on my events calendar here.

Want to know what the book is about?

Sally loves nothing more than investigating a good mystery – and her shaggy canine companion Fetch loves nothing more than to be at her side when she does. There's just one small problem: they always gets the wrong end of the stick! The hapless pair remain undeterred, however, dashing from one crime scene to another on their bicycle, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake ... yet always emerging blissfully unaware. A fun, madcap trio of stories featuring two loveable heroes with a LOT of hair.

"Slapstick, hilarious adventures which may not always quite go to plan!  Bringing back a wonderful partnership – Ardagh and Elwick – and introducing a promising new one,  Sally Stick and her best friend Fetch, [in] a fantastic, appealing book for keen mystery solvers,  emerging independent readers, big thinkers and those who love a big splash  of humour and colour in their lives! A good fun adventure, some great vocabulary,  and wonderful vibrant, colour illustration. "

-- Louise Ellis-Barrett, Armadillo Magazine

If you've already read it and want to write a nice little review (on Waterstones, Amazon, Foyles, your local indie, etc), please do! We love reading them and they really help us authors and illustrators out.

Signed and sketched in copies of Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Stick and Fetch Investigate is available to buy here

Why a talking sea sponge will always be my hero...

I'm often asked "What books did you love when you were younger?" and I'll always respond in the same way: Goosebumps, Harry Potter, The BFG and The Neverending Story.

Those were books that hooked me, that captivated me at various points of my childhood. But when I'm asked "Which books made you want to become a children's book illustrator and author?", the more I think about it, the real answer is actually...none of them.

It was cartoons before it was books, for me. That's what carved out the section in my brain that now stores names and shapes and the rough bones of a character idea. That's where colours and plots and endings are kept, safely waiting for me to use them. Books came later, and the more I read and the more I drew I knew that this was the right choice for me.

My bookshelves are now so crammed, each shelf is three books deep: picture books, middle grade books, young adult books (in truth, I rarely read adult books). I think, over the past 10 years since graduating university and finding myself in a very book orientated world, I'd almost forgotten some of my heroes that helped shape me into the kind of illustrator and author I am. So here it is, an ode to cartoons, without which I may never have found this brilliant job in the first place.

Books mentioned:

Goosebumps series by R.L. Stein

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The BFG by Roald Dahl

The Neverending Story by Micheal Ende

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2018

Well, that was a mighty fine way to spend six days! I've just got back from the 10th (and my very 1st) Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Duabi and, well...I'm not sure where to start! Actually, maybe with the flight...

Nope, I'd never flown business class before, and now I'm not sure I'll be able to get on a cramped EasyJet flight without having a quiet sob to myself. It was VERY nice. Being a Fairly Small Human (I'm 5ft 4) I had so much room, and turned my seat area (what's the correct word for that?) into a happy little drawing nook. I also watched films and drank champagne because I'm quite sure it would have been rude not to. Philip Ardagh - all 6ft 7 of him - fitted in surprisingly well, and I didn't have to use a shoe horn to wedge him out after landing, which I've had to do a few times before. (To witness him trying to squeeze himself out of a seat on an EasyJet or RyanAir plane is to witness a daddy longlegs trying not to plummet down the plug hole.. Quite a sight.)

As illustrators and authors, it's quite common that we spend most of our time on our own (or in my case, with my studio buddy, Sarah McIntyre) so to get out and visit schools or perform at festivals makes a very welcome change for me. We were all (and by "all" I mean authors, illustrators, musicians, poets, festival staff and volunteers) staying in the hotel the festival was held (it was HUGE). Unusually for a lit festival, we were there for a whole six days, so there was plenty of time to chat and get to know other authors and illustrators, some of whom I've only ever previously had a chance to say a quick hello to in a fleeting moment in the green room of other festivals, before being whisked off to have a mic fitted or jump on a train back to London, or babble words at on Twitter. I think that was one of my favourite parts of Emirates Lit Fest.

Cue an onslaught of photos of just some of the awesome people I met:

For anyone who has seen one of Philip Ardagh's events, you'll know that he's one giant ball of hilarious energy, and trying to keep up with that on stage is quite a feet, though mostly just a lot of fun. Although we have a rough script for all of our events that we rehearse, I never quite know what he's going to do or say. He let me off fairly easily this time though, with only one incident that left me wondering if he actually might need medical attention; he lay down on the ground and put his feet in the air, sending me off into the audience with the mic. I had no idea why either of these things were happening, but I figured he'd yelp if he actually needed assistance....Ardagh, you do keep me on my toes!

Not only that, but I got the chance to do a Story Jam on stage with Maitha Al Khayat, who is one of the UAE's most prolific Emirates children illustrators and writers. The premise of our event? Create two new characters and a new story with the audience....in an hour! As you can imagine, there was a lot of speed drawing going on!  With the help of the children in the audience, we came up with a T-Rex called Sam, and a camel called Lily. There were sand tornados, flying carpets, scorpions...and Google Maps even came into it somewhere (though that didn't quite make it into the story!)

I'm so used to doing events either on my own, or with my children's book collaborator, Philip Ardagh, and in both cases, I'm the only one drawing on stage, so I loved getting to draw along with someone else, and, since I'm writing this the day after International Woman's Day, I'll admit that it did feel pretty amazing to be one of two women standing on the stage, in a career we've worked really hard to get into, doing a job we adore. (Cue some kind of Spice Girls 'Girl Power' pose)

We may have left the snow in London, but there wasn't much time for lounging around by the pool side. I did steal ten minutes to crash out (and maybe fell asleep) in the sun after two events. It was a busy six days! 

Luckily for me, my partner Martin was able to come along. This was the first lit festival he's accompanied me to, and although I didn't let him watch any of my events (because...nerves), having him waiting for me after was really nice. Sometimes I think that to anyone who doesn't do this amazing and bizarre job, it can seem like a strange world. A lot of people I've spoken to don't fully understand what it is that I do as a children's illustrator and author - the many hats we have to (or choose to) wear - so it was really nice to show Martin a glimpse of that world in person, beyond the times he comes to my studio for a cuppa, or I come home and debrief him at the end of the day. I hope he comes to more. (Hi Martin!)

The most surprising thing that happened while I was in Dubai, was having to rescue these two Whompodomps. Some of you may have seen these little creatures appear on my Instagram feed over the past year, because although they are usually very shy creatures, they have taken a shine to me (for which I am very honoured). I'd been to see them shortly before I left the UK, to make sure they had stocked up on enough custard to keep them going through the snowy weather that lay ahead, and said a fond farewell. But, unbeknownst to me, they had hopped on the busy tube to London City Airport (how they weren't seen I don't know!), borrowed a plane (well, they said borrowed, the authorities said stolen, but that's a whole other story) and made their way across land and sea to Dubai...only to crash in the desert. Whompodomps don't make great pilots, apparently. They get distracted by pretty cloud formations and thoughts of custard. Ardagh and I set off as soon as I'd realised what had happened, and after many hours of searching under a scorching sun, we finally found them and brought them safely back to London. I stowed them away in my hand luggage and when we were sure the Emirates air hostesses weren't looking, they snook out of my bag and peered out of the window to marvel at the clouds passing by....

There are so many people to thank for my time in Dubai: Isobel Abulhoul, the festival director for inviting me; Yvette, chief operating officer; Mary Ann who arranged the flights and accommodation; Jo, who looked after all our authorial and illustrator (what's the illustrator equivalent to authorial?!)  needs; Flora Rees who organised my school visit to GEMS World Academy; Annabelle Corton who provided two all-important sticks for our Stick & Fetch event (one of which ended up painted gold as THE WRONG END OF THE STICK AWARD; Monita for arranging PR and interviews; Ciaran Kelly for introducing our Ardagh & Elwick event and looking after me for my comics workshop; Meredith Clipperton for introducing my Story Jam event with Maitha;  and all the other staff, interns and volunteers; not forgetting all the men, women and children who came to our events and made up our audiences. THANK YOU.