Tag Archives: Reading

Did my editor like my artwork?


Did my editor like the artwork I finished for Walker – the boy who can talk to dogs?

She did, but she didn’t like the character in the image on the left. It reminded her of someone when she was young who she thought was a werewolf.

My immediate reaction was to think, “Oh yes! There the plot for book 4 in the series!”

A little though and I realised that wasn’t going to happen, so I made Mr Bonus, the Latvian village shop keeper and Walkers  business inspiration, look a little softer around the eyebrows. I think it make him look a bit like Lemmy from Motorhead!

Click the picture at the top to watch how I go about revising a piece of artwork.

I’ve since changed a few other illustrations as I noticed inconsistencies with the text as I went through the final edit with illustrations in place. Of course I should have noticed before I did the artwork!

Walker is out on the 14th of March and you can preorder the book at Amazon with the link below, so you can be the first to read it!

School Visit to Dover

I’ve been down to Dover this week, to visit Whitfield Aspen Primary School. It meant that I got to walk along the famous White cliffs of Dover. There were no Bluebirds because we don’t have Bluebirds in Britain!

Dover is the main port to France, where the Channel Tunnel goes underground and where ferries ply back and forth with trucks, cars and passnegers.

The next video tomorrow will be about my journey home where I stopped off to visit the house of the Jungle Book author, Rudyard Kipling. See it here

Monster Boy – Mummy Menace – Full Read Aloud Story

Follow along with the words on the screen, as I read Monster Boy, Mummy Menace. Get a copy of the book from your library or from my online store – signed with a free poster – or from Amazon. Follow the links.

Connor is half-monster, so he understands monsters and loves to help them with their problems – He’s the Ministry of Monsters number one agent, connate: Monster Boy.

Join Connor and his faithful flying dog, Trixie, as they find monster solutions to monster problems, using his amazing, top-secret monster bikes. Can Connor make the Forest and safe and friendly place for Monster and Humans to live side by side? Someone is stealing all the toilet paper! Can they find a monster solution in time?

Listening to stories and following the words is a brilliant way to gain reading fluency and become a confident, independent reader. Sometimes, it’s just nice to listen to a story. Why not draw pictures of Monster boy and T Rex while you listen? Get some drawing ideas here.