Romancing the Stars

I've just finished writing the name tags in calligraphy for the authors and illustrators who will be at Book Links' 'Romancing the Stars' event on Valentine's Day.

It would be great if you could come along and speed date us and find out what we've all been busy creating - Bulimba State School Hall, Oxford St., Bulimba, Brisbane, 6.00 pm - 8.30 pm, Thursday February 14.

I'm not on the original advertising, but filling Martin Chatterton's shoes as unfortunately he can't make it. All other details are correct and can be found at

http://www.booklinks.org.au/RomancingTheStars2013.pdf

 Drinks and supper provided.

Huge thanks to all Book Links' wonderful organisers, and check out their website at http://www.booklinks.org.au and plans to develop a Children's Literature Centre.

 Peter Taylor
www.writing-for-children.com
www.ptcalligraphy.com

How the Book was Created - 'A Year with Marmalade'

It’s a big welcome today to author Alison Reynolds and illustrator Heath McKenzie as they blog tour with their new book, ‘A Year with Marmalade’, published by The Five Mile Press – and to offer you a chance to win a copy.

It’s a lovely story of losing friends, making new ones and coping with change – and delightfully illustrated and airily designed with lots of delicious white space. Maddy goes away for a year and asks her friend Ella to look after her cat, Marmalade. But Ella’s and Marmalade’s ideas for enjoyment are different. As the seasons pass... – I won’t give any more away.

I love it, but what age range is it really aimed at?

Alison: Thanks for inviting us Peter. Pre-school/early school years – children 2 – 10 years old.

Everyone will adore it, and I can also imagine that it will be very popular in schools to help teach about the seasons.

I know it will have changed somewhat from conception to publication. Who came up with the brilliant idea for raised and embossed lettering on the cover and the tactile, almost sculpted, tree, and at what stage was the decision made?

Heath: This was purely an in-house design idea – and a very good one at that! (At least as far as I’m aware – I’d happily take credit but alas, it wasn’t my brainwave!)

It’s always a joy to work with publishers and their design and production people who go that little bit further to produce books of outstanding quality that will be forever treasured.

I’ve shown my copy to several friends and they all kept feeling the cover. It really does set the scene so well. And the creative typography is an important element throughout the book, too - graphically depicting stomping, falling leaves and much much more. It adds an extra dimension. Did you envisage all that from the start, Heath? Were the word and line shapes pencilled in detail on your initial storyboard?

Heath: Unlike a lot of other projects I’ve worked on, the text placement was designed before I began illustrating. Or more specifically, I’d done a sample spread (the first autumn leaves image with all the piles on the ground) so as to give everyone a good idea as to the style I intended to work with – from there this look was used to design text placement which I then worked with when creating the remaining images. At times my vision and their’s didn’t quite mesh so I’d suggest the odd change or two, but on the whole I did my best to maintain what had been designed.

Did you make any suggestions for word changes so that you could add particular design features? Was there any collaboration between you and Alison? Did you receive any useful suggestions from your art director?

Heath: I made no word changes and only became in contact with Alison after all was done! So on the whole, aside form the text design influences – I was free to carry on as I pleased! Of course, then some editorial discussion takes place and little tweaks are made, but on the whole, things generally remained intact from the initial roughs through to final art.

Do you start off with a pencil, ball-point, Wacom Tablet...?

Heath: I start off with a Wacom tablet and end the same way! From pencil roughs to final art – all digital but all most certainly as traditionally freehand-drawn as possible.

I know you’ve illustrated a significant number of books and are highly skilled at portraying children, but do you ever get children to perform particular actions for you to draw realistically?

Heath: Not yet! Though having just had a daughter – as she grows up, she may become a model more often than she might like! On the odd occasion, I’ve asked my wife for assistance, but that’s been for hand modelling, getting a particular hand pose right that I can’t model myself. Otherwise, my model is a Spider-Man action figure – he has an abundance of articulation points (right down to each finger) and has come in handy many many times!

Are the characters based on any people you know?

Heath: In this book, Ella bares a bit more than a passing resemblance to my niece.

Alison: I grew up with two neighbours/best friends and we played together every minute we could. I tried to imagine what it would have felt like if one of them moved. Marmalade is based on my very special green-eyed cat, Charlotte, who I had when I was little. I wanted to explore how even though things can change we can adapt and things will be even better.

My first pet was a ginger cat - Tom. As soon as we went out for the day or on holiday, he automatically and immediately went next door to get fed along with their cat, but normally never visited.

Can you share a page from the inside with readers, too – and websites people should visit for more information?

Heath: For more information about me, visit:

www.heathmck.com

It’s in need of an update but does the trick nevertheless!

As for a page from the book, instead I’d like to share a rare behind the scenes moment! For every book, I generally begin with designing the characters (very important!). Sometimes it all just comes naturally and easily, sometimes it’s a bit of a struggle to get the look I want right. As can be seen here, Poppy and Ella came quite easily and naturally – Marmalade on the other hand, took a bit of mucking about before I had something I was happy with. (Note also name changes – as I worked on the book, little bits and pieces changed around me along the way, character names being one thing!).

Wow – that’s even more of a treat. Thank you so much for letting us see those, Heath, and for telling us about the process of your book’s creation and development. I’m sure it’s going to be highly successful worldwide. Congratulations to you both and to all the team at The Five Mile Press!

Thanks Peter. It’s been fun!

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter, too, Heath - and to your wife.

And ‘A Year with Marmalade’ is available right now – ISBN 978-1-74248-880-6
RRP:  $14.95.

Alison’s website is full of wonderful things to discover:

www.alisonreynolds.com.au

...including a competition with a chance to win a signed copy – and a copy of the picture book ‘Lighty Faust the Lion’ (a much bigger cat), too.

I hope I'm right in saying that readers need to share their favourite photo that shows their cat’s personality.

Upload it to Alison’s Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/alison.reynolds.524

or email it to her as a low res jpeg file at alrey@msn.com.au and she’ll upload it on her website. www.alisonreynolds.com.au

Entries close on the 1st of September.

If you wish to gain some tips and learn more about the writing, illustrating and publishing process of this book, you may like to visit other stop off places on Alison’s and Heath’ blog tour.

Please add a comment or question here, too, if you you wish.

Peter Taylor
Writing for Children
www.writing-for-children.com

'A Year with Marmalade' Blog Tour

7th August Dee White

http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com

9th August Karen Tyrrell

http://www.karentyrrell.com/tag/karens-blog

11th August Tania McCartney

http://www.kids-bookreview.com

13th August Pass It On

http://jackiehoskingpio.wordpress.com/school-magazine
14th August Kathryn Apel

http://katswhiskers.wordpress.com/blog

17th August Dale Harcombe

http://orangedale.livejournal.com

20th August Peter Taylor

http://writing-for-children.blogspot.com.au

22nd August Susan Stephenson

http://www.thebookchook.com

23rd August Robyn Opie Parnell

http://robynopie.blogspot.com.au

27th August Sally Odgers

http://spinningpearls.blogspot.com.au

29th August Angela Sunde

http://angelasunde.blogspot.com.au

31st August Chris Bell

http://christinemareebell.wordpress.com



From Past Experience

One of the nineteenth century’s early authors and illustrators of coloured children’s books can still teach us a marketing lesson or two. Kate Greenaway took favourite pictures from her books ‘Under the Window’, ‘Mother Goose’, ‘A day in a Child’s Life’ and provided the outlines from the pictures in ‘The Marigold Painting Book’, for children to colour.

The original picture and poem that goes with this one come from 'Under the Window':

The finest, biggest fish, you see,

Will be the trout that’s caught by me;

But if the monster will not bite,

Why, then I’ll hook a little mite.

Here's another one in 'Under the Window':

Tommy was a silly boy,

“I can fly,” he said;

He started off, but very soon,

He tumbled on his head.

His little sister Prue was there,

To see how he would do it;

She knew that, after all his boast,

Full dearly Tom would rue it!

That’s nice, isn’t it? His sister, Prue, knew he’d hurt himself but she didn't try to stop him – she wanted to see what method he’d use. Still, that's typical of kids.

For this one, she only provided a detail in 'The Marigold Painting Book':

 

‘Scraps’ of her pictures were also created to stick into albums, clothes designed to match the illustrations, a Birthday Book, another painting book...

Here are some of her painting tips - for watercolours, I presume, but the same would apply if using gouache paint (ie artists’ quality opaque poster paint, which can be diluted until it’s transparent):

A good paint box should contain the following colours:

Ivory Black, Sepia, Vandyke Brown and Burnt Sienna.

Crimson Lake, Vermillion, Light Red and Yellow Ochre.

Gamboge, Emerald Green, Prussian Blue, Ultramarine Blue

The brushes must be washed clean, rinsed and dried after use. Never leave the brushes in water, and never lay them flat on the table. Take plenty of colour in your brush. Try first on a piece of spare paper to see that you have the right shade, and that your brush is not too wet or too dry.

Always begin at the top and colour downwards, from left to right (if you are right handed).

The edge of a colour may be softened with a clean damp brush.

For purple, mix red and blue. (My paint collection has Alizarin Crimson that I mix with Ultramarine Blue to make purple.)

For green, mix yellow and blue.

For orange, mix red and yellow

For grey, mix Prussian Blue, Crimson Lake and Sepia

Ultramarine Blue is the purest blue, but it doesn’t mix as well as Prussian Blue. It is useful for skies and for the grey shades in flowers.

All cold colours which are to serve as shadows to warmer colours should be laid on first, and generally warm colours over cold should be the rule. Blue is a very cold colour. Crimson Lake is a colder red than Vermillion or Light Red, and Gamboge is a colder yellow than Yellow Ochre. Orange is the warmest colour in nature, and blue the coldest.

If you are an illustrator, please tell us what other colours you think should be in a paint box.

Peter Taylor

http://www.writing-for-children.com/

Inspiration for Writing

I’m told that I’m a hoarder, and I can’t deny that I love collecting things – particularly small things. As I told Sarah Davis, illustrator of Anna Branford’s ‘Violet Mackerel’ books, and she posted on her blog www.sarahdavisillustration.com/the-blog-of-small-things, I started when I was a child by asking friends and relatives if they had anything small that they could let me have for my ‘museum’, which was a special drawer. They gave me some amazing things – but since then, I’ve also bought items. I’m always surprised how little you have to pay for some ancient objects either in stores or through online auction sites. For less than $15, I bought a 4th century Roman stylus that was used to write on wax tablets (wax-lined trays) by ...well, who do you think?

After a message was received in a tablet, the flat end of the stylus was used to burnish the wax surface so that it could be written on again - recycled wax.

Putting such an object into a child’s hand, or that of an adult, can be a powerful inspiration for the imagination. I can do that at workshops and presentations, but why don’t schools develop their own collections? I’m sure children and parents would be pleased to be involved in fundraising for such a purpose.

This is an Elizabeth I half groat, first used by someone between 1558 and 1603. What could you have used it to shop for, or pay for, at that time? Under what circumstances might you have received it?

On my Writing for Children website, you’ll find many more workshop ideas on the ‘Visits’ page.

Peter Taylor
http://www.writing-for-children.com/

SCBWI Report - What to do after you have completed the first draft

Here are some notes I made from the last SCBWI meeting I went to:

At the July meeting of the Queensland branch of SCBWI Australia (The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators), we were delighted to have Louise Cusack, author and manuscript assessor/development consultant/editor http://www.louisecusack.com/, speak to us about what to do after finishing the first draft of a story, and she also provided a lot of other great advice:-

Ask any editor what they look for in a ms (manuscript), and you’ll probably be told the same thing – ‘A good story and characters I care about’.

Stories are about people. The people you put in your story must come across as real.

Make sure it's clear as to whose story it is. In some mss, the main character is not the one the author intended to write about.

Consider each character as an iceberg. Only 10 percent of an iceberg appears above the surface. You will only show about 10 percent of a character in the story, but you must know all about the other 90 percent.

You must love your main character. Think of your best friends. What is it about a particular ‘best friend’ that you like most? Consider making that trait a virtue also possessed by your main character.

Each character will have a best virtue and worst flaw. Make sure you know what each is. (We were asked to write these down for our main character.)

In the first few (??3) pages, in the first scene, show (don’t tell) your main character’s best virtue in action.

Stories must have conflict - there must be an adversary, or a problem to be overcome. This must be the core of the story.

The main character wants (what is their goal?) because (what is their motivation?) but (what is the external conflict?).

The goal and motivation for the main character must be clear.

(Though stories for very young readers rarely have an internal conflict, those for older readers usually include an emotional problem facing the main character, which affects their life.)

The best external conflicts push the character’s emotional button (internal conflict), so:

The main character wants (what is their goal?) because (what is their motivation?) but (what is the external conflict?), and this really winds them up because (internal conflict). This is resolved by (ending).

The conflict has to test their virtues to the max and make their flaws show up to the max.

The internal conflict is affected by the external conflict.

The thing the character never wants to do becomes the thing that he/she must do.

In a structural edit, list all the scenes, then, beside each one, write down what it has to do with the main character’s goal. How does it help or hinder progress to the goal?

Always write from beginning to end of a story without polishing each chapter. That way, when structurally editing, it’s easier to discard unnecessary scenes. If they’ve been polished, it’s more tempting to keep them when you shouldn’t.

You should have confidence in your ability to edit and polish at the end – give yourself permission to write knowing that it will be edited and improved later.

Check all details for continuity - eg the floor plan of buildings is known, so you don’t write about turning left from the kitchen to the lounge at the beginning, but turning right at another point in the story.

If romance is involved, it is never enough to centre the plot around misunderstandings - they could be easily sorted out if the people sat down together or talked to each other.

If the main character falls in love, it is important to make clear the exact time when this occurs - never let them just grow in that direction.

To increase your own feeling of the reality of characters, consider cutting pictures of people from newspapers or magazines – people with a sinister look, a twinkle in their eye… , and create a collage of them all.

When writing a synopsis, first list all the evocative words in the story, then include a large number of them.

In a synopsis, most editors like to know how the story is resolved. They mainly read from the slush pile at night, in their own ‘free’ time. The synopsis must convince them that it will be worth spending their leisure time reading the sample chapters.

When a ms is taken to an acquisition meeting, the accounting department may ask how much editing it will require, ie, hours of an editor’s time at $x per hour. Is it worth the expense?

You may write well, but a ‘head hopping structure’, without flow, may lead to rejection. An appraisal for structure may help avoid this. It's a common reason for rejection.

Mss get rejected for simple reasons that you have no control over. A ms can be well written and rejected by one editor because they don’t like ‘time slips’, whereas another might like that plot feature.

Louise wrote seriously for eight years before her first book was published.

Never give up.

Write what you love most, because after you have been published, people will want more of the same.


Happy writing - may the words flow freely!

Peter Taylor
http://www.writing-for-children.com/
www.myspace.com/writingforchildren