Category Archives: Stories

Mumbleheimer

We went to see Oppenheimer last week. After twenty minutes I decided that it was time to go to Specsavers and get my ears checked.

The character were mumbling and being drowned out by unnecessary music and special effect sounds.

I had to infer what was going on.

But no! it turns out that the movie’s director Christopher Nolan says the use of muffled dialogue in his movies is an “artistic choice”.

It seems that Nolan thinks we don’t need to hear what the actors are saying and that the original take is the “artistic” version so that’s what we get. No enunciation or retakes for clarity.

That’s like saying, “I know it doesn’t look like Snow White, but it’s what came out of my pen when I started illustrating. It’s okay, I love it and stuff the kids who are reading the book or watching the animation. It’s “Art”.

So, it seems my ears are okay and that Nolan is a self-righteous mumble mumble!

Designing the cover for my new children’s book – Generation Moon

It’s time to think about the cover design for my new middle-grade space adventure trilogy – Generation Moon.

This is a first go at it to see what happens. Often, a first attempt looks terrible, so you try everything else. But, eventually, you tend to come back to the first idea.

In this video I show you how I adapt sketches to fit the idea and then begin to manipulate them in photoshop.

Of course, I completely changed my mind and started all over again, but you’ll have to see the next video for that!

My New Book Project – Generation Moon

Artemis 1 was due to launch as I am writing this, having been delayed many times. It is now due to go in two days time – Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Returning to the moon has brought back memories of the excitement I felt as a kid, as The Apollo missions headed out towards the Moon. Apollo 8 was my most favourite mission – It was so bold, so new, so intrepid and all wrapped up with the magic of Christmas.

My generation of Moonies were really let down with the ending of Apollo. But soon, it seems, there really will be humans established on the moon – the future we imagined was ours when we were kids.

So I am now writing a middle-grade, adventure trilogy called GENERATION MOON to inspire the new generation of kids who, one day – quite soon, will populate the Moon and will maybe go even further, to Mars and beyond.

I feel there is a need to get on with this project – time is of the essence and regular publishing schedules are too slow. So, I will be-self publishing over the next year to 18 months, launching the project as limited signed editions on Kickstarter soon.

Sign up to my YouTube Channel when I will be regularly posting news, hints and tips about the whole self-publishing process, writing – editing – illustrating – launching – publishing and, most importantly – marketing.

As well as inspiring a new generation of moonies and astronauts, I hope to help other along with their self-publishing projects.

Stay tuned!