TGIF

*NEW BOOK ALERT* - and a snazzy book launch to go with it!

It's taken me a little time to write this one up as I've been snowed under with other work and Frankfurt preparations. I always seem to forget (or mentally block out) how hectic this time of year is.

I've been doing a selection of work for some fantastic fiction titles recently. It makes a great change to what I usually do in the children's publishing world. It's allowing me to broaden my portfolio and I'm loving it.

Introducing *drum roll*  - Weirdos vs. Quimboids by Natasha Desborough, published by Catnip Publishing!

"Cursed by the initials BUM, saddled with woolly liberal-minded hippies for parents and an UNDYING love for the Proper Real-Time HOT Felix Winters, BLOSSOM UXLEY-MICHAELS is a seething mass of sexual frustration and political confusion. But when she's invited to work on the school radio, Blossom's convinced her status is about to rocket from Weirdo to Winner . . ."

Reading the unfinished manuscript last December made me laugh out loud and cringe so bad and I knew straight away that I had to be on board. Written in a diary format by the leading character, Blossom, we follow her  and her best friend and trusty sidekick Petrina - Ola Olsen (POO) on their quest to be cool. Working for the school radio station with the hot guys and promoting their band - Camel Toe - how can they fail! Throw in some quimboids, slightly insane parents and all the other troubles of being a teenager and away we go!

So with all that to bear in mind, we set off to try and deliver a cover that would do the book justice and aim it at the right target market. It wasn't all plain sailing getting this design right. After many changes and suggestions from big book sellers, this book went through not only a name change, but also a fair few complete different looks and approaches. While at the time there were a number of heads banging heavily on desks, I'm am pleased with how this one turned out. Who wouldn't enjoy being given the option to use NEON PINK on a cover??

On Sept 24th, I was invited along to the Wvs.Q book launch. It was great to meet a lot of the lovely people at Catnip and Bounce - and of course Natasha herself! After many quite frankly hilarious Twitter messages and emails back and fourth, it was great to finally meet her in person. The night was filled with food, drink and mingling with fantastic publishing and book people. Tash did a reading from the book and signed copies left, right and centre (including mine!). Lovely night with some lovely people to celebrate a flippin' brilliant book. Looking forward to the next one...

Tash teaching us the 'Scale of shame'. Levels go from 1. The burden of the embarrassing name, to 10. Watching a sex scene on TV with your parents or actually catching them at it. *proper real-time cringe*

Awesome Non with her Weirdos T-shirt and Camel Toe pin badges, myself and Tash.

(Picture pinched in a friendly way from Non's blog... )

(Thank you Matt the Librarian for this picture...)

Weirdos Vs. Quimboids is available to -----> buy <----- now! It comes with a cool option to download one of Camel Toes' songs - Poncerama via a QR code on the back of the book, too. Pretty cool and that is a scientific fact! 

For more info and extra goodies check out Tash's website www.natashadesborough.co.uk where she is groping Dave Grohl's bum. Jealous.

*NEW BOOK ALERT* Introducing - THE FABULOUS FOUR FISH FINGERS

Sorry *again* for the radio silence on my blog recently. It's been a super busy few months and I've been working on numerous wonderful projects that I will be able to share with you very soon. 

For now, I can tell you all about the release of a flippin' awesome debut novel from Jason Beresford, The Fabulous Four Fish Fingers - published by Catnip, with illustrations by little old me! 

This hilarious fiction story centres around four ordinary kids who are given some not so ordinary super powers. Throw in a couple of comedy villains - a pant-eating anteater, aptly named The Panteater, who only eats pants as he is allergic to ants, and a man, rabbit, piratey thing called Jumper Jack Flash - who are out to steal ALL of the sweets in Tumchester. As the plot thickens and the town's supply of sugary treats runs dry, the best friends must come together and work as a team to stop the hairy duo.


"KangaRuby bounced, Nightingale soared and The Chimp swung with Slug Boy gripped in his fingers. The scene that greeted them was truly terrible…" 


This book is for ages 7+ and is aimed at fans of Andy Stanton, David Walliams and Roald Dahl. Check out some of my illustrations that accompany the story throughout...

The Fabulous Four Fish Fingers is available to buy NOW from most good bookstores, Amazon and other retailers. Perfect read for the summer holidays. There will be more updates over the coming weeks, in the meantime check out the website for the book - www.thefabulousfourfishfingers.com.

Also, you can follow these peeps for more info:

@jason_beresford

@catnipbooks

New Book Alert!

Got a nice package through the post just before I left for LA again from Usborne. Spent a few months last year designing and part illustrating this title - Animal Alphabet Activity Book. This book is great for teaching children the alphabet, phonics awareness and pen control through numerous activities including puzzles, colouring, doodling and lots of things to spot. Sarah Horne's illustrations are as quirky as ever, and this is one very satisfying doodle-in book!
Available for pre-order from Amazon - or from the Usborne website from 01/06.
Here's a sneaky peek at a few spreads.
©Usborne Publishing 2013

School doodles

Recently, I was asked to do some doodles for a school back in my hometown of Liverpool. Rudston Road County Primary was actually the school I attended from the ages of 4 - 10, so I was delighted to be asked to do something for the school website, prospectus and correspondence material. Think a few of them have popped up throughout the school too. Slightly different feel to this artwork, something I'm trying out. Here's a few examples of the final pieces.