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How to draw a troll.

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...

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Fantasy - the easy way out?

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...

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Planning for the future.

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...

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When work is not work.

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...

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Guest Post: Tahlia Newland

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...

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Strange coincidence or happy accident?

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...

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News update.

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...

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A fairly unique experience.

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...

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Finally feeling Spring.

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...

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An Interview with Rosen Trevithick

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...

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Another Year...

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...

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Oops, sorry...where did that time go?

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....

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A New Year, a New Start

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...

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Fantasy Art - from the ground up.

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'...

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A tribute to a hard-working lady: Jackie Hosking

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...

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Coming Soon - "Famous Animals"

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,...

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I'm going on a blog tour...

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...

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Blog Tour, Stop #2

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...

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Blog Tour Stop #3

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...

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Blog Tour, Stop #4

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'...

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Blog Tour, Stop #5

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...

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Rosen Trevithick, Chocolatier extraordinaire.

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...

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What do you do when you're not researching?

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...

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Creating from photos

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...

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Marketing a Book on the Internet (When You're a Dummy).

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,...

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