I am currently taking some time to work on a couple of my own stories, editing the text and developing the characters and rough page ideas. I have been working on the picture book course with The Good Ship Illustration and it has been so much fun, lots of idea prompts which has led to writing 4 new stories that I am working on. Here are a few sketchbook pages for a couple of the characters for one of those stories.

In other news, 2 wonderfully exciting parcels arrived from my publisher in the USA….books! ‘

Everybody Counts! makes learning numbers fun as young ones discover new foods and languages from around the world. Explore favorite foods from twelve countries. Illustrations highlight the animals and numerical symbols that represent each country. Written by Matt Forrest Esenwine, illustrated by me and published by The Little Fig LLC will be available from 1st Jan 2023 and can be preordered now.

The 2nd box, from the same publisher is Señor Saguaro – has lived many years in the sol caliente with agua poco. He knows just what it takes to grow and thrive in the Sonoran Desert…or does
he? After befriending a bat, a woodpecker family, and a fruit-loving pack rat,
Señor Saguaro sees his royal role in his ecosystem in a whole new way. Señor Saguaro is written by Lisa Rose and illustrated by me and published by The Little Fig LLC will be available from 1st Jan 2023 and can be preordered now.

Nora’s Park

I am also working on my story Nora’s Park is a tale of a young girl, living in a grey gloomy town. She worries about how she can help the planet, how can one small girl fix all that is wrong? Mumma suggests small steps to help – “Well, how about we start right here?” said Mumma, “we can start by feeding the birds.”

From the small act of feeding the birds, life, colour and nature gradually bloom about her.

I have also been working more on Tall tale Tommy, editing the story mainly and sketching more of the two main characters; Tommy and Billy. Tommy lives next door, he’s always telling Billy stories about things he has done, amazing things, things that mum says not to believe; ‘Tall tale Tommy tells another’ she sighs. Billy is inspired by the stories and one day when Tommy isn’t in the garden waiting to tell another tale, Billy misses him, but a mystery package arrives, one to keep Billy dreaming.