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JUST ME (KATE) LOOKING AT LIFE, ART AND WRITING
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I’m exhausted. All day, I’ve been doing something I’m not used to – marketing. Oh yes, I post an occasional ‘hey-remember-this-book’ type post on Facebook or Twitter, but today I’ve been all over, multiple times, posting photos, videos and links to bookshops. My friends will probably all unfriend me if I keep it up much longer.
The truth is,
Famous Animals Volume 1 has been out for over a year now. The promising sales at its birth have petered to occasional sales at local markets. Those market sales are still gratifying, because I’m able to see who buys them and why (like the man who bought it for his friend’s 65
thbirthday), but they’re not exactly rushing in to buy it. Amazon UK has reduced the price again, meaning it’s wanting to get rid of the three copies it has sitting on its ‘shelf’. So my marketing is partly to try and give it a kick.
Another reason is that I have Volume 2 (Musical Animals) almost ready and I want to try to get it published by a traditional publisher. I’ve had a number of other traditionally published authors, and booksellers, tell me that it would take off much better if I did. It might be easier to do that if they think people are interested.
The third reason is the recent release of a ‘Famous Animal Leaders’ Calendar on Redbubble. I’ll write more about that on here very soon.
There is another reason, but I’m not going to go into it right now. I’ll wait until I have seen, first-hand, a book that is about to be released. If you’re British, you’ve probably already seen the author being interviewed everywhere and can work out why my interest has been peeked (and my pride dented somewhat).
On the upside – today I learned how to boost a post on Facebook (I’m sure they’ll appreciate the HUGE amount of money I laid out. At least one of them will be able to get Macca’s for dinner.) I aimed it mainly at British Grannies. I'll get onto Australian ones next. I figure they're the ones who buy it most - for their grandchildren.
I’ve also posted a video to Twitter for the first time. Now all I need to do is work out how you do that on Instagram. Gee, I do wish sometimes that I was thirty years younger, so I understood all this stuff.
This weekend, I turned a log of wood into a series of patterns that I might upload to Redbubble and two book covers – already loaded onto
Magic Owl Design. Why? Well, because I could, really. It was fun. That’s what art has become to me lately – simply fun. I find myself racing from one experiment to another, becoming happier and happier as I go along. Whether others think they’re wonderful doesn’t really cross my mind, unless the art is a commission, of course, in which case I slow down a bit and concentrate on what
they want. Otherwise, I’m simply rolling with the flow of whatever happens and enjoying every second of it.
So how does a log of would become a piece of art? This way, basically...
Start with a photo of an interesting log of wood.
Smooth the texture out so it looks painted.
Lay the result in various patterns – reverse the image, maybe overlay it here and there and then mess around with the colours and blends. Photoshop is full of surprises when you play around with it.
With these particular results, I saw possibilities for book covers. If you look closely you can see a man in the first picture. That's what inspired the first cover. The second, I cropped, stretched and added all sorts of filters and gradients to it.
Voila! Two more pre-made book covers for sale.
And sadly, I now have to stop and go and live real life. My family do need to eat after all.
When I was at university and wanted a rest from studying for exams, I would read. Not any old book, but books by authors like Sir Walter Scott. They were hard to read, so kept my brain in the right gear for studying while still being a relaxing change. In the same spirit, I thought that as I'm in the middle of doing the research for "Famous Animals Volume II" (stay tuned) I'd write a blog post that required a little light research.
My friends of Facebook are woefully aware - because I keep boring them with the results - that for Christmas, I was the happy recipient of a new camera. I've taken a huge, one could even say embarrassing, number of photos since then, of which this is one -
Sorry to the squeamish amongst you. I should probably have put a warning. Aren't they like something out of a horror movie? These things used to terrify me as a nine-year-old, just out from England. Their name, 'Spitfires', is enough to scare anyone. As an adult, I'm less impressed by their name or their spikes, though I admit I did stand back a fair way to take this photo. I was quite surprised to find them, as I hadn't seen any for quite a few years. Of course, I hadn't actually been looking for them.
Spitfires are not caterpillars, but are the larvae of the Sawfly, which isn't a fly but a form of wasp. It's an unusual wasp in that it doesn't have a thin waist or a sting. The female lays its eggs inside eucalyptus leaves through a serrated ovipositor, hence the 'saw' part of its name. The larvae stay together in clumps like this during the day and move apart at night to feed on leaves. If they're disturbed while in these clumps, they exude a liquid from their mouths which smells strongly of eucalyptus - a deterrent to all but the most hardy predator. Note the use of the word 'exude'. They don't spit...but the name 'Dribblefires' doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?
From what I can gather, this particular group of hugging creatures is rather out of season. They're supposed to climb down the tree and pupate in the ground in the middle of spring and it's now the middle of summer, but maybe the unseasonal wet weather we've been having lately has spurred the sawflies on to laying more eggs. Whatever the reason, I'll be very careful when walking under that particular tree for a while to come.
Those of you who know me will have heard of today's interviewee before. I've been illustrating Rosen Trevithick's Smelly Troll books for a few years now. In fact, I interviewed her before, almost two years ago to the day. I have special reason to interview her again though. She has written a book that is very different to anything she's done before and will appeal to everyone I know - 'Chocolate Making Adventures'. Who doesn't like chocolate? And it's a beautiful book!
Hi Rosen, thanks for coming on my blog...
The cover of your new book makes my mouth water and I gain a kilo just looking at it, but what makes your book different from other books about making chocolate?
The other books are lying! Or, more politely put, many recipe books that claim to tell you how to make chocolate, actually tell you how to work withchocolate.
Chocolate Making Adventures is unique in that it tells you how to make chocolate itself, working with cocoa butter and sweeteners.
There are websites about making chocolate, but I’ve been unable to find any full-length books. I think the reason is that commercially available cocoa butter is a relatively new thing. I imagine we’ll see a lot more cookbooks on this subject popping up over the next twelve months.
You’re best known for your novels for both children and adults, from trolls to naughty grandmothers. Why did you decide to do a book about chocolate?
I became addicted to making chocolate and obsessed with trying to find a way to make milk chocolate at home – it’s simple once you know how, but it took a long time to figure out why recipes I read online didn’t work, and to develop a new method.
I was getting behind with my writing projects but realised I could seize back those procrastination hours if I made my next book about chocolate.
Also, having spent so long perfecting recipes, I wanted to share them with others. Let ignorance stand between no man and his perfect chocola
Could you tell us a little about the fantastic photos in the book? Who did them and how did she go about making them so fantastic?
The photos are by a wonderful lady called Claire Wilson. She is an experienced photographer who’s just taken an exciting leap into freelancing full time. I was lucky enough to be one of her first food photography clients.
When we started out, I didn’t realise that professional chefs have entire teams working to make food look perfect for photos. Usually a food stylist gets involved between the writer and the photographer. Because of lighting, sometimes photographs of artificial props look more like the food than photos of the actual food.
I didn’t know any of this and just blindly followed my recipes, regularly handing over chocolate with an apology, “It’s not shiny”, “They’re misshapen”, “The surface has bloomed” etc.
Claire not only had to photograph substandard chocolate but also take the role of food stylist, to come up with unique and interesting ways to present each one, as chocolate itself looks quite plain. In most cases, she used props and background to add interest and colour.
Each photo is a little work of art. I see the work as a photo book as much as it is a recipe book.
How difficult is it to create your own chocolate from scratch? Is there any special equipment you need to do it? Do you need certain conditions for it to work? (As an Australian, I’m imagining globs of melted chocolate all over my kitchen in the hot weather.)
Creating plain chocolate is very simple. I’ve seen recipes that suggest you just melt three ingredients together and allow to set. I personally feel it needs an extra step to ensure the ingredients don’t separate out, but even with my extended method, you can do the whole thing in less than an hour. Varieties like milk and white require a little extra attention, but once you’ve got the knack, you can easily prepare those in less than an hour, too.
As for equipment, you can make chocolate in a bowl above a pan of boiling water and leave it to set in whatever you have to hand. Perfectionists and people who are planning to make a lot of chocolate, will want to buy a slab and scraper for the smoothest possible results, and some moulds for presentation.
As for hot countries, a crucial step in my recipes is to spread the chocolate around on a cold surface, to quickly cool it. I imagine that would be difficult in a hot kitchen. I suspect you’d need air conditioning.
Do you have a favourite chocolate that you would recommend over all the others? Why is it so special?
My all-time favourite has to be peppermint cream. I just love the contrast between dark chocolate and the fresh, minty filling.
Then there are the peanut butter cups, which you can make with or without oaty biscuits. You can make peanut butter simply by blending peanuts. Nothing so simple should taste that good.
Oh, and the amaretto creams with boozy cherries are heavenly. I don’t drink, but I so allow myself one or two of these from time to time. They’re a real adult’schocolate.
I also have a soft spot for homemade white chocolate, because it took me a very long time to work out the secret.
How can you make such wonderful looking chocolates and stay so slim? Do you not eat your own produce?
I actually put on ten pounds whilst writing this book! But then I was surrounded by chocolate all day, every day for many months.
A trick I learned from a birthday card my sister sent me, came in handy: "If you can’t lose weight, fatten up your friends."
Thank you for having me on your blog.
Thanks for coming on, Rosen. My mouth is watering just thinking about all this chocolate!
Rosen's book is available as an ebook or in print from Amazon and other online stores.
Links:
I'm a little late in posting this, it's been a busy last few days, but Post #5 is up at the blog of Sci-Fi author Michael Brookes. Not only does he write his novels, he runs an online shop selling interesting sci-fi and horror t-shirts and is running a Drabble Festival in November (as well as doing his regular job). He's a busy man, but still found time to post my piece about the technical side of painting the illustrations for Famous Animals. You can read it and find out all about Michael's projects at this link
Today, I've stopped by the blog of Rosen Trevithick whom you may remember stopped by this blog some time ago, nearly two years ago to be exact. She and I have worked together on numerous 'Smelly Troll' books. Rosen always asks interesting but hard to answer questions, but I've done my best to answer them.
Here's the link : Rosen's Blog
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| From "Trolls on Ice" by Rosen Trevithick. |
Third stop on the Famous Animals Blog tour is now up, this time at the blog of Australian author, Pauline Conolly. Pauline writes history (including 'The Water Doctor's Daughters') and her website is full of interesting information so make sure you take a look around if you're visiting for my post. Thank you to Pauline for inviting me to post and being so encouraging.
The blog tour for Famous Animals Volume 1 continues. This time I've been interviewed over at Kath Middleton Books by the lovely lady herself. Kath used to be a reader, until she discovered she was a writer and since then, there's been no stopping her. You can check out her books here.
This interview is not so much about Famous Animals, but about my books and illustrations in general. I hope you'll support Kath by checking it out -
Kath Middleton-Books
Well, it has been a long time coming, but I'm thrilled to say that "Famous Animals" is now real and available all over the world. To celebrate, I'm setting off on a blog tour. I'll keep you posted here where I'm going to and I hope you'll support the people who've kindly let me onto their blogs to blather...ahem...I mean give really interesting information about my new book.
First stop is at the blog of Australia's own Sally Odgers, whose children's books fill a whole shelf in our school's library (and we don't have all of them). She's also an editor and you can find out about her services at Affordable Manuscript Assessments . Even better, she's a dog lover, so she must be a good sort!
I'll write a long post, or maybe a book, some day about why it took so long to get Famous Animals off the ground, but for now, let's get the blog tour rolling. First stop...
Promote Me Please
For those of you who haven’t heard, I have a new book coming out soon...in the next month or so anyway. Sorry, it’s not the sequel to Treespeaker (that’s still all inside my head), or even Larkspell, which has been patiently waiting to be finished for so long. No, this is a children’s book. Well, no, it isn’t really. It’s a history book. Well, no. it’s not really that either. It’s a book about animals. Er, well…it has pictures of animals. Sort of.
The above indecision about what the book actually is explains why I haven’t sent it to a ‘real’ publisher to try to get them to publish it. I just couldn’t think how to do it. How does one pitch a book that doesn’t fit anywhere? I couldn’t even tell you if it’s fiction or non-fiction. Librarians are just going to love it!
It all started with the 52-Week Illustration Challenge at the beginning of the year. The theme for the week was ‘Italy’. To me Italy screamed opera, so I decided to draw Pavarotti. However, I don’t really often manage to draw someone who actually looks like they’re supposed to. I prefer animals. Eventually, I hit on the idea of drawing a rat and calling him ‘Pavaratti’. When I’d finished, I realised that I could think of a whole lot of people whose names could be turned into animals. So I set to work and painted them. Soon I found I was thoroughly enjoying myself and making those I showed them to laugh. With the help of friends on the Kindle Users Forum, I made a long list of possible subjects. A book was born. “Famous Animals.” Not a very catchy title I suppose, but I wanted it to appear serious… but not.
In my dreams, the book would be a large coffee table book with just the high resolution pictures to keep adults and children alike amused. In reality, I can’t afford to print something like that without the cost to the customer being astronomical. Hence the confusion about what sort of book it is. Apart from each picture, there will be a short, hopefully witty comment about the animal persona, a short biography of the real person on whom they’re based and an interesting fact about the animal. So for Pavaratti, there will be something about Pavaratti, something about Pavarotti and something about rats.
Before I get it to the book launch which someone has kindly offered, there’ll be a series of adverts and hopefully a blog tour (thought that may come after). So expect to hear and see more of this in coming weeks. If I start to bore you, let me know?
By the way, I already have enough ideas for Famous Animals Volume 2 (Musicians), Volume 3 (Artists) and Volume 4 (Entertainers), so this could go on forever!
I don’t know how many people who read my blog are children’s writers/illustrators or Australian or both, but there’s a lady who has helped me a lot in the past and I’d like to pay tribute to her and her work today.
I don’t remember when or how exactly I first came across Jackie Hosking, but I’m pretty sure it was when I’d just finished “The Dragon Box” and was looking around for some way to get it published. In my hunting, I came across a useful little online magazine called ‘
Pass it On’. It contained all sorts of information about children’s publishers, competitions, writing opportunities and more. Even better, it came out every week, straight into your inbox and for a very low cost. I couldn’t believe how much work this lady must put into it every week.
Needless to say, I signed up and started to use the information I found – writing for and getting paid by places advertised in Pass It On. But the e-zine is not just about writing. Twice Jackie has featured me in interviews – once as an illustrator, once as a cover designer. It was the first interview that actually got me one of my first book cover jobs, the author having seen my work and liked it.
The most recent ‘big thing’ for me also came about through Jackie’s magazine. I’ve long known about the ASA’s ‘Style File’. It’s a showcase for Australian Illustrators, with portfolios easily accessible to publishers around the country. I’d looked at it and thought, ‘that’s for real illustrators, I’d never get accepted into that.’ At the end of last year, I saw an advert in PIO for The Style File, calling for submissions and with my new-found ‘I can do it’ attitude, I submitted 8 illustrations. As everyone on Facebook knows, I found out recently that I’d been accepted. If I hadn’t been a subscriber to Jackie’s magazine, and if Jackie hadn’t gathered that information, I wouldn’t have thought about submitting. As it is, the Style File site is being relaunched in a couple of weeks with promotions to publishers etc. There’s a lot of really brilliant work on there, so I may never be picked up by a publisher, but I have more chance than I ever had before.
Speaking of the great work on The Style File brings me to Jackie’s other talent. She’s a pretty great children’s poet herself and has a fantastic book out, “The Croc and the Platypus” (Walker Books). It’s beautifully illustrated by Marjorie Crosby-Fairall, who also has a portfolio on The Style File.
Jackie also helps out other would-be poets. It beats me how she finds the time to do all the stuff she does.
So if you’re an Australian children’s writer or illustrator and you want some way to keep your finger on the pulse (sorry, I’m tired, clichés happen when I’m tired), get over to Pass It On and check it out.
If you’d like to know a bit more about it from Jackie herself, there’s an
interview here about the magazine and how she gets it together.
Thanks, Jackie!
(And in case you haven’t seen it, here’s
my portfolio on The Style File. Have a look at the other work, too!)
Someone asked me the other day, if I use actual photos when I'm designing a fantasy landscape and I had to admit that, yes, I often do. In Photoshop, there's a wonderful tool called the 'mixer brush' which picks up pixels and mixes them up, just as if you had a wet paintbrush and stirred it in the paint. So I can get a photo and mix the colours so that it looks painted. What I have as a result is never anything like the original photo because I 'sculpt' features out of the landscape to make it fantastical. It's just a lot quicker than drawing a picture first and I like it better because the whole process is a voyage of discovery. I don't really know what I'm going to do, until I start and I dpn't know what I'll get until I'm finished.
A while ago I read of someone who takes 'macro photos' - very close up photos - of things in nature, to use as part of her fantasy book cover designs. So rocks become mountains etc. I wish now that I'd kept the link so that I could let you see. That got me thinking and I took my daughter out for a walk armed with my camera. The reason I took my daughter was twofold - firstly, she has a far steadier hand than me and secondly, she doesn't mind getting down on the ground to take a photo. (I don't mind getting down either, I just have great difficulty getting back up.) We came back with a supply of good and not-so-good photos. I've let the 'simmer' on my computer for a while and a few have given me ideas for landscapes. Today, I'm going to show you how I work, from start to finish.
1.The orginal photo. Probably a mouse hole, or maybe the den of a bearded dragon. I lengthened the photo to give better perspective and cut out the 'sky'.
2. Initial smudging stage. Still very rough, but gives an idea of where I'm going.
3.That dip begged for a waterfall and if there's a waterfall, there has to be a river. I've no idea where the river goes after it heads under the hill, but this is fantasy! Maybe there's a huge, subterranean lake?
4. I began to sculpt the rocks. I did that by dragging the dark shade from the cave and by adding lighter colours and smudging them in.
5. The squarish bump on the flat on the right suggested to me that there needed to be some sort of access from the middle ground to the hill in the background. So I added the road. I was toying with the idea of blending the layer onto a coloured background, hence the background colour change, but I thought better of it.
6. Added sky and did some more rock sculpting.
7. I liked the shape of the landscape, but not the colour. So I made a multicoloured filter layer and put it on as a soft light. Far more fantasy worldish. The new road was leading to nowhere in particular, so I drew a castle to sit on the hill.
8. The pale rocks on the left had no real purpose, so I decided to make them into a pathway.
9. If there's a pathway, someone has to be seen to use it. I drew the figure as a separate painting so that I could put in as much detail as I like and then resize it. (It also means I have a figure I can adapt for other pictures!)
10. Final product. Well, until I decide to change it again. I can already see lots of possibilities. But I'll keep this one intact as it is.
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. It was all done on a Cintiq 13HD, by the way... a little something I bought a couple of months ago and which I don't know how I ever worked without.
Before I begin, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. I hope it turns out to be all that you wish for.
Anyone who is friends with me on Facebook or other forums will already know that I handed in my resignation at work at the end of last year. I am no longer a library assistant. Instead I am a freelance writer and illustrator, with some relief teaching thrown in to help the coffers. The question remains, why?
The impetus came from two directions. Firstly there was what a friend euphemistically called ‘stuff’ at work. Because of the ‘stuff’ I found I no longer loved the job as much as I did a few years ago. Of course, every workplace has ‘stuff’, and on its own it probably wouldn’t have been enough to make me leave. I still loved the kids, and the teachers, and support staff were wonderful people to work with, but ‘stuff’ was the grain of sand that overbalanced the decision-making to the leaving side.
It really all started when I discovered the work of Sir Ken Robinson. If you haven’t heard of him, look him up (or, at the very least, watch the video below). He’s an education expert, gives inspiring talks, makes more sense than all of the other so-called experts I’ve met put together. He believes in creativity, he believes we all have it and he doesn’t think modern day education recognises that fact. As someone who at school, was told by the Principal that I was being lazy choosing Arts subjects for my final two years rather than the Sciences as my two older sisters had, and by a science teacher, that I would never amount to anything because I didn’t possess an ounce of logic (he was joking, but it stuck with me), the idea that creativity could actually be a good thing resonates with me. Creativity is not just the arts, though. That’s why I've always been a fan of Einstein. He recognised that creativity was important, whatever walk of life you were in.
Without creativity, nothing changes.
Back to Sir Ken. He wrote a book called ‘
The Element’. I read it at the end of last year and loved it. It’s about people who struggled in life until they found (or someone showed them) the one thing that made them really come alive. They weren’t necessarily ‘arty’ types. They were from a whole range of professions, but their lives had changed with the decision to leave what they were doing and start being who they really wanted to be.
What Sir Ken wrote wasn’t really new to me. I’ve done courses: ‘discovering your true self’, ‘discovering your hidden talents’ sort of things, but with the ‘stuff’ at work, it really got me thinking. This wasn’t just about talent, it was about passion. In the library, I’d be looking at my watch regularly, hanging out for the next bell, the next cup of coffee. At home, working on a book or on illustrations or book covers, I can sit down at 9am thinking ‘I’ll just do this for an hour’, and be surprised by my husband coming in wanting to know what he should have for lunch. When I’m writing or designing, I zone out and time vanishes. I’m in my element. Interruptions are often annoying. I’ve always known it. Until now though, I’ve pushed that fact aside and done what I ‘needed’ to do – originally whatever I thought my parents expected and later, whatever I needed to do to support my family.
My family still need supporting. Eldest is still at University, Sausage has just discovered violin and apparently has potential and Dynamo is being a teenager with all the attendant costs that involves. We need money. The fact is, though, that I was not enjoying life much. I’d come home grouchy from work, have three days of relative happiness and then feel grouchy all weekend, knowing that I had to go back on Monday. It wasn’t good for me or my family. Yes, it was a regular income, but at what cost? In the end, I decided that a happy mother with less money was really more beneficial than a stressed-out mother bringing in a small but regular pay-cheque. Magic Owl Design is bringing in income, albeit smaller than I earned in the library. I’m getting more work as an illustrator and my books are trickling out of Amazon slowly but surely. I really think that I can make a living and be happy. I’m going to give it a jolly good try anyway!
(Quite long, but well worth a listen.)
So what’s happening? Nearly another year has passed and I’ve not written a single blog post. Does that mean I’ve been doing nothing? Well, no, just the opposite really. I’ve been very busy. Unfortunately that business hasn’t included much writing. Here’s a rundown of where I’m at…
Writing: I have done somewriting. It’s not been neglected altogether. I even have a title for the book now – “Larkspell”. As of this weekend I’m up to Chapter 20 and I’m estimating there’ll be about 26 altogether, so the end is in sight. I think I might have missed writing a few chapters though, because the story swaps and changes between two threads and I got carried away with one thread and neglected the other. It will all start tying together soon, though, so I’ll have to get back to those chapters. Then there’s that lovely thing called editing to do. Groan.
Art: On this front it has been a very busy year. Magic Owl Design has built up and I’m now getting work on illustrations, maps and book covers very regularly. So regularly, in fact, that I got brave and handed in notice at school so that I can concentrate on that as my main income. It had got to the stage where going to work was interrupting what I was doing for clients and so making their wait longer. I’ll write more about my motives for quitting at another time, but that’s the big news for now. I’ve expanded into doing illustrated covers, too, which I love doing. I’ve even done a few original pre-made fantasy covers in the hope they’ll sell.
Apart from the art I’ve been doing for Magic Owl, I’ve also been taking part in the
52-Week Illustration Challenge 2014 run by Tania McCartney on Facebook. It started off as quite a small group, but it has grown and now there are lots of people involved. Each week we are given a word and have to do an illustration for that word. There is some huge talent amongst the participants and I’ve learned a lot from seeing what they do and just from having to do something every week. I’ll definitely be taking part again next year.
My last piece of art news is that I did end up buying a Cintiq. Just a small one, but I've bought a large screen to attach to my laptop so the smallness of the Cintiq doesn't matter. It's wonderful, fantastic, magical! Being able to draw straight onto the screen is just unbelievable. It's like 'real' art without the mess or the smells. I'm loving it...that's another blog post.
I know I said this at the beginning of the year, but I will try to blog more regularly from now on…
Another year. They seem to be passing with speed that’s on a logarithmic scale. It feels like tomorrow I’ll be wishing everyone a happy 2015, but common sense tells me that time has not sped up, just my perception of it. It’s scary.
Sorry my blogging has been so erratic. My whole life has been erratic to tell the truth. I’d like to think that this year, things will settle down, but it’s not looking promising so far.
On the good side, I did get that one book published in 2014 and the website I started in the hope of selling book covers has grown and is getting a satisfying number of hits each day. I’ve been privileged to create covers for some really great books. I’ve also done some maps and of course more troll illustrations for the wonderful Smelly Troll books by Rosen Trevithick.
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| Photo manipulation |
Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook will know that I spent some of the money I’ve earned through book covers to buy myself an Intuos Pro, a drawing tablet from Wacom. I already had a Bamboo tablet, but it was tiny and I found it very restrictive. This is huge and I absolutely love it. If I’d had lots of money, I would have bought a Cintiq which allows you to draw straight onto your picture on the screen. But I didn’t have lots of money, so the Intuos had to do – and it’s proving pretty good. I love being able to do the whole illustration from sketch to finished product straight onto the computer. No messing around with pencil and eraser, no trying to scan the drawing to a satisfactory quality. Just straight onto the screen, multiple layers and then all sorts of lovely effects you can get through Photoshop.
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| Original art plus photo |
One thing that has become clear to me over the year and with using the tablet is that my penchant really is for children’s book covers and fantasy covers. Photo manipulation is fun, but I just love being able to create the whole cover out of my head or turning photos into my own artwork. I don’t suppose that surprises me. I’ve always loved creating fantasy/illustrations, but I wonder if there’s a market out there for original artwork covers? Something for me to find out this year: how many authors are actually willing to pay for full rights to an original cover?
On the writing side, I have a work in progress – a novel based on “Orlando’s Gift”, the short story I had out on Amazon for a while. It’s very different from the short story because I’ve devised a whole other tale to intertwine with it and that’s rather taken over, but from the reaction I’ve had on Critique Circle to the chapters I’ve written so far, it’s going down all right. I just need to knuckle down and keep writing. I already have the cover done, just to keep me motivated! I'd love to show it to you, but that would spoil the effect later, wouldn't it? I still don’t have a title. I’m waiting for it to hit me as I write.
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| Original art |
To all of you who read this blog, a very belated Happy New Year…unless you celebrate Chinese New Year, in which case, I’m a few weeks early! Here’s to a year of getting done what you want to do, surrounded by supportive friends and family.
Until the beginning of this year, Rosen Trevithick was someone I chatted with sometimes on a couple of British forums. Then one day, she asked if anyone knew anyone who could illustrate her book. That was when I became the illustrator of the fun series, Smelly Trolls. Rosen is a great writer, a lovely person and an easy lady to work with and today she's doing something rather exciting - launching THREE books at once (see details below).
Hi Rosen and welcome to Trees Are Not Lollipops.
Let’s start with a common question for authors - who or what inspired you to be a writer?
I was certainly born with the desire to create stories, but I think you need the right influences to encourage you to develop your ideas and put them down on paper. I benefited from some very supportive teachers both at primary and secondary school. In fact, I’ve recently written letters of thanks to two former teachers. My mum gave up work to raise us and frequently encouraged creative activities at home. It also helped being exposed to some really strong children’s authors like Roald Dahl and Michael Morpurgo, whose books made regular appearances on my bedside table.
How long did you write before deciding to self-publish?
I’ve always written bits and pieces. For thirty years my cupboards and hard drives were cluttered with first chapters and odd scenes. Some even saw the light of day – I put on plays, blogged and wrote magazines for my friends. Then in 2010, I learnt that you could self-publish a Kindle book. That’s when I really went for it.
Do you have a favourite book that you’ve written? If so what is it and why?
I have several favourites for different reasons. I love The Troll Trap because it was the first time I met a smelly troll and I adore writing that series. I like Pompomberry House because it allowed me to take my sense of humour on a marathon. There’s a special place in my heart for my first Seesaw collection because it was the first one of my books to be in print and no author ever forgets opening their first proof. More recently, I’ve become fond of My Granny Writes Erotica, because it’s been getting great feedback and it’s hard not to like something when it’s the cause of people saying nice things about you.
You recently celebrated having sold or given away over 250 000 books. Something to be proud of! Apart from writing great books, what did you do to achieve that?
I announced approaching 250,000. There are still a couple thousand to go. I’m eagerly refreshing my sales reports! Hopefully today’s triple book launch will be what tips the balance.
A number of marketing techniques have proven effective, such as interacting with readers online and in person. However, the one thing that has stood out above all else is offering free short stories. I have seven full length titles – two novels, two short story collections and three children’s chapter books. I regularly offer free and cheap short stories that either belong to one of my anthologies or link to a novel. Readers download short stories when they’re on offer and many go on to buy my other titles.
You’ve publicly stated that you suffer from bipolar disorder. How much of a hindrance has that been, or do you think there might be a link between that and your creativity?
Having the rapid cycling type of bipolar disorder feels like having uninvited guests running riot in your head, flicking switches, bumping into things and ripping shreds from your brain tissue. Fortunately, with medication and lifestyle management, I can keep the majority of the mood swings and unwanted thoughts at bay. However, the slightest assault to my physical wellbeing such as a cold or sprained ankle, can send my whole system off kilter, causing the illness to flare up. When it does, it’s sheer hell.
In terms of writing, my condition is both a help and a hindrance. I certainly don’t welcome the mornings where I wake up and my head is too full of nonsense for me to achieve a thing. I get frustrated when I’m invited to events that either involve too much travelling or start too early in the morning for me to attend without disrupting my much needed routine. However, the nature of my condition means that the government has provided support for me to work from home, as and when I can. I wouldn’t have had this support if I was healthy.
Bipolar disorder is associated with heightened creativity, both in terms of historic anecdotes and empirical research. The manic spells are associated with over-productivity. This means that when experiencing elevated mood, I could sit down for six hours and bash out 6,000 words. However, doing so would be highly dangerous because if you encourage mania, you can suddenly crash and that’s when many suicides happen. I have to be disciplined and put what’s right for my health ahead of what’s right for my career. It’s hard sometimes because I’m very ambitious and would love to benefit from 6,000 words a day.
In short, life with bipolar disorder is, at best, a full time juggling act and, at worst, mental torture, but it probably does help me write.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m writing a sequel to My Granny Writes Erotica.It was supposed to be a standalone story but reviewers asked for more. Author brain said, ‘But I’ve developed that idea and concluded it nicely.’ Business brain said ‘I haven’t spent hours of my time trying to create a demand for your books, so that you can throw this opportunity away.’ So I sat down and started working out how to continue a story that had already reached what I considered to be its natural climax. It’s been challenging but I think I’m getting there.
What made you decide to write about trolls and which is your favourite?
I wrote about trolls for my brother’s kids. They’re both boys and they find smelly things funny. Pointing at Roo’s feet and saying ‘pong’ gives him the giggles. The troll books are a little old for them at the moment. When I wrote The Troll Trap, I wanted something they’d grow into so that they wouldn’t grow out again too quickly. Now that I’ve decided to write a whole series, I’m glad I did pitch it a little high because it means I can keep writing with them in mind.
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| Brawnulator and Mama Bulbousbum |
My favourite bad troll is Brawnulator Powerknees, because he was the most fun to write about. My favourite good troll is Bruno, because we’ve spent so much time together it would be impossible to choose anybody else. If we’re talking illustrations, I most like your depictions of Mama Bulbousbum Stenchmistress, Gunkfreak (in a tutu) and Marv the Magnificent.
Which do you enjoy more – writing for adults or writing for children? Why?
I adore writing for children. Comedy-writing is my favourite kind of writing and all my books for kids have been from the humour genre. I did enjoy briefly dipping back into writing for adults with My Granny Writes Erotica because that was equally silly. Sometimes you really need to get a joke out of your system. The new craze for monotonous erotica was ripe for mockery and there was simply no way to combine my desire to mock billionaire romps in a children’s troll book!
If you could change places with any other writer in the world (or history), who would it be and why?
It would have been rather fun to write Roald Dahl’s books, wouldn’t it? He led the way when it came to wacky children’s books and must have had a great deal of fun writing. Although I believe his life was not without tragedy or loss. On reflection, I am happy not to be Roald Dahl because it means I’ve been spared the agony of losing a child.
You like to write while sitting in public – cafes and the like. What is it about writing in public that you enjoy?
Cake, meeting new people and getting away from the WiFi. When I’m at home I often find myself refreshing social networks and forums when I should be working. This means that even the interruptions in a busy café are fewer than the interruptions I put upon myself when at home. Also, I live alone and it gets lonely. When I work in cafes people come over and talk to me about my favourite subject – my books!
Today I’m launching three new books:
Seesaw – Volume II : A short story collection aimed at adults. Features stories from a variety of genres including crime thrillers and humorous fiction. Contains the popular novella, My Granny Writes Erotica.Trolls on Ice : The third instalment in my Smelly Trolls series. Rufus and friends go on a skiing trip, unaware that the Winter Trollympics is taking place nearby.
Win a Kindle
Upload a photo of you or a member of your family enjoying one of my books to win a Kindle Paperwhite. Terms and conditions apply.
Spring is sprung (a month ago, in fact).
And yes, the grass is definitely riz. The sore eyes and sneezes can vouch for that. The little bird that comes every year to perch by the tractor mirror and sing its little heart out to itself is here again. There’s even a touch of warmth in the air when the persistent rain we’ve had this year (not complaining, just saying) eases off enough to let the sun peak through. It’s my favourite time of year.
Unfortunately, it’s also that time of the year when everything starts to rev up. Signs start coming out announcing the number of days to Christmas, shops stock up with tinsel and Christmas cards (they already have. It’s sad). At work, everything is geared towards the end-of-the-year Presentation Night, reporting and final assembly. Eldest will be into his University exams and then panicking about getting ready for his overseas trip just after Christmas. Sausage has her music exams (if her broken wrist doesn’t mean putting it off until next year). It’s all go.
It’s now when I need to reread my Eckardt Tolle books and learn to ‘make friends with this moment’, because this moment is actually pretty good. There are magpies singing over near the road, a dove cooing on the gutter above my window. Our new cat is lying in the sunshine near me, licking herself without a care in the world. I have a lot of things to do, but I’ll get them done, one at a time. I’m on holiday from work. The sun’s shining. It’s spring. ‘Tis good.
I had an experience today that I don’t think too many authors would have had. At work, I catalogued a couple of books. Not unusual? No, of course not, except that when I went to put the spine labels on, they each had F STE on them. Yes, I catalogued and covered my own books for the school library! I’ve done it before for books that I’ve illustrated, but actually being able to put that spine label on was a wonderful feeling! Unfortunately, I haven’t had the joy of seeing them on the shelf (or even better, being taken off) because they went to the library on the Secondary campus and I work at Primary, but all the same, it was fun. I had secretly hoped that the school library barcode on one of them could be 24601 (anyone who knows my favourite book will know why) but unfortunately that was already taken and we’re up to numbers beginning with 26... Ah well, I can’t have everything!
Yet again, I haven’t been keeping this poor blog up very well. Though lots of things have been happening, I’ve simply not had time to write about it! So here’s an update.
News Item 1. Since June, I've completed the entire set of covers for The FRUGALITY Trilogy by
Stuart Ayris (for ebooks
and print – including an anthology of the three). As I said in an earlier post, I’ve been a fan of Stuart’s since I read his first book, Tollesbury Time Forever, so I was thrilled to bits to be able to do his covers. If you love something literary, but far more interesting than the usual plotless literary novels, have a read of Stuart’s books. Guaranteed to be something different!
News Item 2. I finally got my book cover site up and I’ve been busy (very happily busy I might add) filling it with pre-made covers. There was a slight hitch when I discovered that ‘KWSDesign’ which I’d planned to call it, was already a company in America (furniture designers, I think) so after much thought and difficulty finding anything that wasn’t already taken, I came up with the name of
Magic Owl Design. After a month, I still haven’t sold any pre-made covers, but I have had lots of views and got a customer for a custom cover, so it’s on its way.
To add to the excitement,
Rosen Trevithick, for whom I did the illustrations for ‘The Troll Trap’, has started a
pre-made cover page on her ‘Indie Book Bargains’ site which she kindly let me join. By far the greatest percentage of traffic since she started it has come from her page. Thanks, Rosen!
News Item 3. As reported in my last blog post, I’ve been working to get my books into print. Last week, I finally experienced that precious moment when I held my first book in my hands. Treespeaker is a real book at last. 5x8 inches, cream paper and 320 pages. Beautiful. Sigh.
It’s now available from
Createspace and
Amazon. I set the price at $13.99, but Amazon immediately took 10% off. I don’t know how long that will last though.
I’ve ordered myself a box of them to try to sell at the local Writers Festival to be held in September. I felt very left out last year when all the other presenters had a table of books to sell and all I could do was hold up a picture on my iPad. This year, I’ll have the real deal.
A proof copy of Mark of the Dragon Queen should arrive in a couple of weeks. I doubt I’d be able to get any of them here by the day of the Writers Festival, but it will be nice to be able to say it’s available as well.
I’m nervously awaiting the arrival of the first proof copy of Treespeaker at the moment. CreateSpace has told me it should arrive within a couple of weeks. It has been a long, frustrating road to this point, but thanks to a lovely friend who took pity on me and offered to do the formatting (which may as well have been brain surgery for me), my first e-book is now on its way to being a real, three-dimensional, smelling-of-ink book.
In the process of trying to format it myself, I made an interesting discovery. At one point in the story, when there has been a death in the forest, Jakan the Treespeaker intones words over the body as they farewell it into the care of Arrakesh, the spirit of the forest. In the ebook, I had the words on the left hand side of the page, unsure if trying to justify it would muck up the formatting. This time, I thought it would look neater if I centred this song on the page so that it stood out. This is how it came out –
Arrakesh,
You are wind,
You are bird’s song,
Dew on morning grass,
Velvet on deer’s horn,
Shelter from rain,
Warmth of fire,
In us,
Around us,
Beginning to end.
Does it remind you of something? If I’d tried to write a song that formed a stout-trunked tree shape, I couldn’t have done it better, but this was purely coincidental. I have to admit to finding it a little creepy the way it worked out. A prayer from the Treespeaker forms itself into the shape of a tree?
The friend who did the formatting probably wished this coincidence had been in the shape of a frog or an elephant – anything but a tree – because getting this tree to stay together all on one page was a nightmare. Hopefully it has now come out that way on the printed page and not morphed into something else.
I’ll let you know when the book is available from CreateSpace/Amazon. In the meantime, I’ll worry about whether the cover is too dark, if the chapter breaks look right, etc etc. I do wish mail from the US was quicker!
Today's guest post comes from Tahlia Newland, founder of "Awesome Indies". Tahlia works hard to find well-written, quality Indie books to make it easy for readers to find books to read. (I'm glad to say a couple of my books are included on the site!) Thanks for guest posting on my blog, Tahlia!
Can authors review their own work? This one does.
When I put a new release onto Goodreads, I always write a review of it. I can do this because they let me, but also because I do so much reviewing that I can actually remove my author self from the equation and write what my reader self thinks (do I have a split personality?) I think it’s a really good exercise for authors to do this. Sometimes, I like to imagine the worst things someone might say about a book, then no matter how horrible a review is I’m not too shocked because I’ve probably thought of something worse. I haven’t had a really terrible review yet, but maybe I just haven’t found the right reader!
“My reviews of my own work are always totally honest, written from the perspective of me as a reader, not as the author, & this one, I have to say is a highly unusual book. Although it’s a great ride like the rest of the series, it’s also a little gruelling in the last third where Ariel struggles with addiction and Nick's patience is sorely tested. But then, addiction is like that, you can't treat it lightly.
It's very much the third book in a series, the last struggles before something shifts and the characters can move on for their last push to the top of the mountain (book 4 is very inspiring). As with the previous books in the series, there's lots of action, humour and romance, though Ariel finds that being Nick's boyfriend when a demon that feeds on craving is around is a bit trickier than she imagined.
You'll meet Yule, (a bright-eyed, shaven-headed scholoar) the Haba (an awesome race of mountain Warriors) Kestril's sister, Kelee, and Ariel's 'Auntie and Uncle'. We hear the prophecy, find out the reason for Kestril's apparent dislike of Ariel and dip into some of the intriguing areas of study she undertakes at the University of Sheldra ie Demonology, Response Ability, The Nature of Reality and Advanced Demon Slaying. There's also Gimp wrestling and a guest appearance by Spud, the wombat.
Ariel's mother, Nadima does something so surprising that even I didn't see it coming, and at first I thought it was a pretty stupid move. She had to reassure me that she knew what she was doing before I agreed write it the way she wanted. In the end, the whole section starring Nadima is some of the best writing in the book.
Enjoy it, it's quite a ride.”
It
’s always best to start at the beginning of a series though, so to inspire you to do just that
, book one in the series is only 99c until the 6th July on Kindle and Kobo, so pick it up and read your way to the top of
Diamond Peak.
You can also pick up a
FREEshort story prequel to the Series
here.
If you’re following the series already you can get Demon's Gripat
What readers are saying about the Diamond Peak Series
“I can't even begin to describe all of the action you'll find in this highly imaginative journey. This is a fantastic depiction of a fight between good and evil.” Crazy Four Books.
“A magical world with an exceptionally well-written ribbon of “real world” weaved throughout.” Twisted Sense Book Blog.
“This world is the context for Ariel, a young woman in the grip of a prophecy, desperately trying to rescue her mother before her mother is killed... or worse.” Ruthanne Reid, author of The Sundered.
“A beautifully written, exciting fantasy-adventure with vibrant description.” Krisi Keley, author of
Mareritt.
Post by Tahlia Newland, the award-winning fantasy and magical realism author with a metaphysical twist. If you enjoyed this blog post, you can join her on
Facebook, Twitter or Google+You can even fan her on Goodreads.
When not reading, writing, reviewing or mentoring authors you may find her being an extremely casual high school teacher or making decorative masks. Tahlia began writing full time in 2008 after twenty years in the performing arts and a five-year stint as a creative and performing arts teacher in a High School. In 2012, she set up the Awesome Indies List to showcase quality independent fiction. She has had extensive training in meditation and Buddhist philosophy and lives in an Australian rainforest south of Sydney. Creativity is her middle name!
Have you ever read a book and thought, I’d love to design the cover for this (or write the screenplay, or whatever your creative bent might be)? I have. It was when I read “Tollesbury Time Forever” by British author, Stuart Ayris. It’s an unusual book. I don’t normally go for ‘literary’ books, but it caught my interest, so I downloaded it and read it while waiting for my husband to have tests in hospital last year. It says a lot for the book that I didn’t mind the six-hour wait at all and even felt a little miffed that P came out before I’d finished. My review of the book is
here (and it took me a long time to find because it has a lot of reviews).
A couple of weeks ago, Stuart asked on a forum we both belong to, if anyone knew of a book cover designer who could re-do his book covers. He asked it during the day in England which, of course, meant that I was fast asleep. He’d been given suggestions by the time I saw it, so I watched a dream sail out of the window. Then I grabbed it by the tail and hauled it back in. Cheekily, I sent him an email. I’d no chance if I didn’t try. Wonderfully, he replied with a ‘yes please’. So I have spent the last ten days designing three covers for Tollesbury and the sequels (The FRUGALITY Trilogy).
Here’s the results –
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| Purchased at Depositphotos_23308274_1 |
Someone said how clever I was to use vectors. Truth is, I didn’t. I used this stock photo as a basis, resized it to fit the book and went from there, laying layers over the top. I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed doing anything quite so much (and those who know me know how much I enjoy doing my art work). The hours I worked on them just melted away. I only hope the covers help Stuart to sell lots of books, because believe me, they’re good!
Soon (hopefully) I’ll be launching a new website solely devoted to book cover design. My big dream at the moment (apart from a trip to Scotland/Ireland) is to be able to earn enough to stay home and work here – with writing, illustrating and book design. So I’m working on some pre-made covers to get people in and hoping that those who have used my services already will like them enough to spread the word. I’ll let you know when it’s launched!
This morning, I spent a frustrating half an hour on the telephone, trying to find out how a young man is supposed to go about getting an apprenticeship in this lovely little country town. Dynamo is in Year 9 at school and has an idea of what he wants to do after Year 10, but he’s worried that he might need better marks. So, sensibly, he’s trying to find out now what extra effort he may need to put in.
First I phoned the local TAFE College. They’re the ones that run the apprenticeship training courses. No, they said, we don’t do career advice. You need to phone this other place. So I phoned this other place. No, they said, we don’t give career advice to school kids. We give it to those who have left school and the unemployed.
‘Wouldn’t it be more effective to advise kids while they’re still at school,’ I asked, ‘so that they can work towards the subjects they need?’
There was a moment’s silence at the other end before, ‘Well, yes, I suppose so. I hadn’t thought of that. But if you want advice, you should phone TAFE.’
So this afternoon, I asked a teacher at school. He’s not a trained careers guidance officer; he's just a man who knows a lot more than these people who are supposed to know. It’s annoying that something as simple as getting career advice from the people who should know is so difficult. In a ‘Reader’s Digest’ (ie short and fast) explanation, the teacher was able to tell me what course Dynamo would need to do in Years 11 and 12 and what level he would best need to achieve. He now has the framework for a plan.
The moral of the story? The obvious person to ask is not necessarily the right person to ask!
On a writers’ forum I visit occasionally, someone recently posted a link to a grammar quiz and challenged everyone to test their knowledge. One member tried it, didn’t do particularly well and commented, “It’s a good job I write fantasy.” This comment summed up, I think, how a lot of people judge fantasy authors. There seems to be a general opinion that fantasy authors, especially self-published ones, only write fantasy because they’re not very good writers and it’s the easiest genre to write. I have reached the stage where I would rather tell someone that I write articles, than tell them I write fantasy. Even worse – I write children’s fantasy! Their eyes glaze a little when I say I’m self-published and then when I say I write fantasy, their lips twist into a smug smile that says to me, ‘not a real writer, obviously’.
The truth is that fantasy, written properly, is a difficult genre to handle. Writers in other genres have their world, with all its rules and regulations, set for them. They simply have to find a plot and some characters and then follow those rules. Yes, they may have to do some research, but once they know the rules, their path is set.
Fantasy writers, on the other hand, have to create a whole new world. That new world has to work and be clearly defined. Magic can’t simply be thrown in to save the hero; it has to follow the rules set and kept by the author. Furthermore, to satisfy readers, fantasy worlds have to be different from each other. If all fantasy authors wrote of worlds that mirrored medieval Europe, then readers would soon tire of reading their books. Extra effort has to go into making new worlds unique in as many ways as possible. Cliché plots and characters are not tolerated either.
I think this is why I love the fantasy of Ursula Le Guin so much. Her fantasy worlds are truly unique. As I’m not into the sort of fantasy that includes fierce battles, dungeons and torture, her gentle worlds appeal to me. They are so different and yet so clearly drawn that they become real as I read. She is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the best writers in any genre. If I could write half as well as her, I’d be a very happy writer.
Oh, by the way, if you’re interested, I scored 9/10 on the test. I couldn’t have told you the rule I was following to get the answers, but…
I went shopping this morning and bought myself a scanner. I've just completed the illustrations for Rosen Trevithick's second Smelly Trolls book - "Mr Splendiferous and the Troublesome Trolls", but I'd found using a camera to transfer the pictures onto the computer a major hassle and far more time-consuming than I wanted, so I treated myself to a scanner. Then, this afternoon, I created a "How to" information sheet for Class 5A at a school in Cornwall who have been studying "The Troll Trap".
I'm not sure how to reproduce a PDF here, but this is how it goes -
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Figure 1. Draw rough shapes in pencil.
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Figure 2. Outline shapes in pencil. Add features like face, clothes, fingers and toes |
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Figure 3. Add more details (still in pencil) like hair, warts and cracks in the skin. |
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Figure 4. Go over all the important lines in black pen. Erase all the pencil marks. |
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Figure 5. Colour in your Troll. Give him (or her) a really ugly name. |
©Katie W. Stewart. May be reproduced for educational purposes only.
If you're interested in a copy for your class, just let me know and I'll send you a PDF file. If you haven't read either of the Troll books yet, I recommend you do, especially if you have a young child to read them to. They are magnifitastic and bellilafficus!
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| ©Katie W. Stewart |
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I’m exhausted. All day, I’ve been doing something I’m not used to – marketing. Oh yes, I post an occasional ‘hey-remember-this-book’ type post on Facebook or Twitter, but today I’ve been all over, multiple times, posting photos, videos and links to bookshops. My friends will probably all unfriend me if I keep it up much longer.
That must have felt good, Katie - a unique experience indeed. Congratulations.
Thanks, Clare! :)
24601! I sung that in my head! :D
I hope you did it in your best Colm Wilkinson voice, Ryan! :)