• Earlier this year, I worked with Year Five at Whitchurch Primary school in Herefordshire. We used my, now out of print, Dark Claw series as the basis for some new writing. To say it was an interesting project wouldn’t begin to describe it!

    However I learned a load of things and I hope the children did too. One of my ideas was to use lulu.com to publish their work. I would then be able to show others how to do the same. It’s been such a busy year, I’ve found it hard to find the time to sit down and really concentrate on putting the artwork together to make the book. I’ve managed it over a few hard editing and design/layout sessions. It’s actually quite a lot of hard work! knowing how hard it was just to get the material together, I’m thinking it’s probably too much to ask others to have a go – I’ve realised just how much knowledge of digital printing I’ve picked up over the years. (I started out in printing in the old, inky days, so It’s in my blood, I guess.)

    Well this morning, I could have started on the artwork for the next Axel Storm book, but I’ve got quite a big day tomorrow, so I felt I’d like to spend today clearing up loose ends.

    And… hooray! I’ve uploaded all the artwork to lulu.com, checked it, double-checked it and I’ve ordered three copies to see what It’s like. I know already that the overall design is not brilliant, but I’ve learned from that. If It all works well and smoothly, I might be encouraged to have a go at putting the Ginger Ninja back into print.

    So… fingers crossed. I’ll look out for the postman and share the joy with you here when it arrives!

  • Wondering what to do for Father’s Day?

    Take a tip from a dad – Dad’s love to receive home-made cards.I know how it is – you just can’t think of what to draw on a Father’s Day card? Click the picture and zoom over to my drawing school site where you can view a video that teaches you how to draw a Ferrari 458 Spyder – a super cool car, or what? I’m sure most Dad’s would love to have a card with that on it.

  • The ferns are really busting out in the Forest now. I always marvel at how they explode out of the ground and uncurl. They are masterpieces of fractal design, imperceptibly growing in un-noticeable stages. Each new stage of growth looks so like the last one, you can’t see the joins or how it got as big as it did. When it’s grown it looks like it must have always been like that.

    I’ve picked up a few ferns for my garden over the years. They are all slightly different, but they all have that wonderful uncurling system.