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Children's author, illustrator, screenwriter

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International Book Giving Day

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This is a lovely thing, taking place on February 14th.

I’ve seen that Viv Schwarz and Clara Vulliamy have made lovely book plates to stick inside the book you donate – so I thought I’d do the same!

There are also some great ideas for book giving over on the Playing By The Book blog!

Here’s Harold the Hamster, being all giving. Click on him for a hi-res version!

UPDATE: And now you can also download with a dedication and border. Click for biggie!

A clever little Scottie Dog

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Like most writers and illustrators, I’m always thinking of the next project – the lot of a freelancer eh?. And probably like most writers and illustrators, I’m working on three new projects at once. They’re all at different stages in their evolution: one’s a synopsis with a blossoming set of characters, one’s had three different treatments already (!?!), and the other is three chapters written.

I like to keep on my toes.

Any way, here’s a new character from one of the projects. I’ve always wanted to draw a Scottie Dog, and here it is.

New books, new characters

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I’ve recently put the 4th yeti book to bed, so I’m ploughing on with new things. New things mean new characters, which are always exciting. It means I get to draw a multitude of faces, working out who’s going to be who.

I like the process of brainstorming faces – watching films for features I like, doodling face shapes and seeing what works for a character.

I’m not going to talk about these characters as the story – a novel – is something I’m keeping close to home for a while. I’m rarely secretive about stuff, but this story warrants it I think. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t show studies and doodles, does it?!

Coppicing with the cutest little tractor

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It’s that time of year again. On Saturday we donned our long-johns and trekked to our little slice of forest for a spot of planned coppicing and clearing.

Taking on a piece of woodland means getting involved in a very hands on way. It’s the only type of environment that actively benefits from human involvement, so the more work we do to thin the trees and clear the brambles, the better it is for wildlife and wild flowers.

We’ve been opening and clearing this ride on and off for the past two years. The ride (trackway) is edged by dead hedging (you can see us laying it in the photo below), which serves a double purpose: it’s a great a place for creatures to nest, and also acts as a barrier to stop deer getting at new growth on the coppiced tree stands.

These sorts of things take time to achieve – cleaning up the wood is a ten-year plan, at the least – but we’re already seeing new wildflowers and more butterflies than ever before.

And one of the benefits of working in the woods is that I get to ride on the cutest little tractor ever.

Harold and Pigsticks try out comics

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I’m doing some samples of Pigsticks and Harold as a comic. It’s very much in keeping with the original stories (in words!) that I created about my headstrong Pig and willing Hamster – I guess they were quite script-based, so suit comics well.

Here’s one of the pages of Harold finding a parcel on his doorstep.

Stories always take a variety of shapes and form before they settle, so it’ll be interesting to see where this path leads.

Keeping it together…

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Everything’s kicking off chez Milway. Books are happening, babies are crying, and the Christmas tree is almost decorated. I say almost, because I’m determined to make a Harold the Hamster angel to go on top.

If I get that made before xmas then I’ll be very happy.

There are a number of things I’ve not posted about, and I hang my head in shame. Friends’ books, events, book launches, all manner of things. I shall get round to these.

For now though, I shall link to the fabulous Deadly Knitshade’s website. Her knitting is awesome, and her Stitch London book would make a fabulous Christmas present.

Just look at them corgis!

More soon…