Things I’ve found down the back of my couch…

Things I’ve found down the back of my couch:-

1. Money.
2. Fluff
3. Keys
4. Food, which had long since hardened into something unidentifiable….but still tasted ok.
5. Glenn Miller
6. This Blog

I wish I could say that my lack of blogging was due to the fact that I was undertaking a solo expedition of the amazon rainforest, or was helping  protect the mountain gorilla population of Central Africa, or was bringing liberation to the people of North Korea…but I can’t.

It’s really due to a mixture of laziness, illness, and (happily) being very busy indeed.

I thought I’d start by talking about the laziness…..but on reflection I can’t be bothered.

As regards the illness I’m currently getting over a bout of pneumonia, which (for seven weeks) has been great fun for everyone involved. It’s been a laugh a minute in our house.
I’d always thought that pneumonia was caught by the very old or by Victorians, and was initially shocked to come down with an illness from another era. I’m quite used to the idea now though, and next year I’m aiming for scurvy, black death, or perhaps a little scrofula!

All that’s left to talk about is how busy I’ve been, so I thought it was high time I blew the dust off this blog and told you what I’ve been up too.

At the beginning of December I was in Edinburgh signing books with Suse Moore, author of the Power Families series of stories. Suse is a hugely talented writer, and her stories are fab.
We’ve been working together on a number of projects for quite a few years now but have only ever met each other twice, so it was great to meet up in Edinburgh even though I’m pretty sure I got the pneumonia off the unwashed masses I was signing the books for. Dirty beggars…

Ma, Ella, and Flo and Mo.

YOU TOO CAN DRAW LIKE ME! (sort of)
I’ve got a new-ish book out published by Usborne. It’s a colouring-in book all about dragons. aimed at the younger end of the market.

Get your crayons out people.

Now those of you who clicked on the above link might see that the illustrator for the book is listed as Lizzie Finlay; this is a mistake on the part of Amazon.co.uk.
I am not Lizzie Finlay. I am not even Lizzie Finlay at weekends.

In the past five months I’ve also illustrated an educational book for Oxford University Press, and two short story books for Pearson. I can’t show you any artwork for these because, understandably, publishers like to keep any future titles under their hat until they’re properly announced.
If I did put any of the artwork up on my blog they would have to kill me.

Something I can show you is the cover of a book I’m doing for Franklin Watts, all about a little boy who makes a Robot out of his mums pots and pans. Here’s the cover up to now.

Rory's Robot

I’ve just started on the interior pages of the story, and the book is due to come out later this year.

If the rest of this year continues to be as busy as the past five months I’ll be very happy indeed. Let’s hope that I’m not so busy that I can’t update these pages!

I’ll keep you posted.

Possibly.

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