Wishing on a star...

Here are a few sketches for the new Katie book. These have been sent to Orchard Books and I'm waiting for their reaction. It's an exciting, creative time, as already some problems in the story have come to light and now I have the task of adjusting my own story to fit the images I want to make. I love having the two work together in this way, hand in glove. That's the real beauty of picture books, where one plays with the delicate balance between word and image, to give the child the best way of following a story, which is as memorable for it's pictures as it's prose. That's certainly my wish!

Starry sketches

I've almost completed the roughs for "Katie and the Starry Night". As always, the challanges have been to make the gallery interesting and not too predicatable. Not easy when the paintings have to be viewed "face on". That limits interesting perspective somewhat. I'm also not sure where to fit type onto the Starry Night scene. And several pages are being rewritten because now I've started making pictures, the words no longer work. But that's normal! More sketches will follow...

Meet Our Authors (and illustrators)

Yesterday I was very honoured to be the first illustrator to be invited to participate in the Authors Live events with the Scottish Book Trust. It was the perfect way to launch Katie In Scotland and I had a great time telling legends of pirates that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson and demonstrating how I created my vision of Nessie.

You can watch it HERE on the SCOTTISH BOOK TRUST website.

Thrilling, terrifying, exhausting and I wouldn't have missed it for all the world!

Starry thumbs

So begins the next book: Katie and the Starry Night. I have mapped out most of it in little thumbnail sketches, and when I've tidied them up I'll send them to Orchard Books. It won't be this week though, as I'm getting ready to go to Glasgow tomorrow for the Authors Live event on Thursday. It's come around so fast! I'm very excited and a bit nervous about being broadcast to thousands of children... Oh well, what's the worst that can happen? (please don't answer that!). There is still time to register if you haven't already. There are also useful teachers' resources on the Scottish Book Trust website. Take a look HERE!

Other Katie news: The theatre show is scheduled to open in North London at Easter 2012. Soon I'll be meeting with a designer to plan how the story can be brought to life on stage in a way that allows the production to move to all kinds of venues on tour. I can't wait!