Participating in an Open Studios event can be a bit nerve-wracking. You clean all the paint-covered coffee cups, sweep up bits of paper stuck in the floor boards and generally make the place presentable without sanitising it too much. Then you think about what you’d like to tell people about your work and hope you […]
I was delighted to be invited to speak to Year 6 at South Crosland CE Junior School recently, especially because Huddersfield Literature Festival awarded my visit as a prize for a schools writing competition. I discovered that the pupils are also keen illustrators when I set them a quick drawing activity and they all came […]
My scrumptious thank you gift from the pupils!
This is one of the biggest weeks in the UK school calendar! Tomorrow, March 5, children across the land will come to school dressed as their favourite book characters. They’ll be […]
This month has been excellent for art and writing inspiration. I kicked it off a couple of weeks ago when I spent a week at Lumb Bank, the Arvon Foundation’s writing centre in rural Yorkshire. It was magical, as I knew it would be, and it inspired my writing side in a very […]
I think this cool poster from Totally Locally says it all. When you venture out to make seasonal purchases, I hope you’ll support the retailers in your neighbourhood, your village, your town. They are your neighbours and their presence helps keep your area thriving, […]
If you know my stories in the Blackhope Enigma trilogy, you know that I have a thing about mazes and labyrinths.
Because I live in England, there are plenty of ancient and new ones to visit. I like to hunt them down, walk them, figure them […]
Happy Second Half of January! By now we’ve all had plenty of time to assess 2013 and make wishes for 2014. Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about.
Top creative experiences in 2013:
Launching two new books for children and young people. In May […]
Jill Maden (Photo by Teresa Flavin)
A rollicking ride around Australia with motorcyclist Jill Maden.
I’ll remember the summer of 2013 as one of the more hectic in my adult life. Not only have I been busy talking about my new book, […]
I’m really pleased to post the winners of Whitburn Academy’s S1 Art Challenge! In May I spoke to all the first year pupils about The Blackhope Enigma after they had read the first four chapters in class. I was asked to set them an art challenge that day and I proposed an illustration inspired by […]
Two weeks in and 2013 is looking pretty eclectic. Just the way I like it.
There hasn’t been any time for hibernating. I’ve just finished inking the interior illustrations for The Shadow Lantern and, any day now, the typeset script will come back to me for proofreading. By the end of this month, the book will […]