To try them, you’ll either have to wait for me to post the recipe online next week, or come to my Alien Moon launch party!
These are the cooked biscuits prior to being covered in chocolate, and pooey bits.
News
Who wants a yeti bookmark?
Click for a full-size version!
How to make a Yeti mask
Yetis form a major part of my life. But until now I didn’t have my own suit. I was only half a man. So, with the launch of my 4th Mythical 9th Division book, the Alien Moon, just around the corner on 3 May, it was time to rectify the matter.
Now all the available suits out there are pretty nasty – both in their angry nature, and in their finish. But I had to start somewhere, so I bought this suit for the body, hands and feet. They’re actually pretty good, and the inflatable shoulders are a winner.
BUT, and this is a big but, the mask was quite horrible to wear. It was really claustrophobic and sweaty. It also wasn’t really suitable for use in school visits. I want the kids to think it’s smart (or to use the correct terminology, ‘sick’), not terrifying.
So, where to start. This is what I wanted the mask to look like – my yeti, Timonen.
The face is simple, for ease of drawing, and Timonen has a massive beard, which is perfect for hiding the costume joins. To sculpt the face I bought some Sculpey and, with a wire mesh support…
…I got cracking. From there I built up the clay until it looked right, and then baked it to set it hard. And here it is, the positive impression of a yeti face.
Now, to make a rubber version of the face, I’d need to turn that positive impression into a negative. I needed to make a mould. There are many options you could choose, but I wanted the easiest possible method. I picked Alginate. This stuff is used for taking casts of teeth, so it’s very friendly and quick setting. As the mask was just one side, I could create a sort of Alginate bath and push the yeti face into it until it set.
That’s exactly what I did, as you can see here.
Dinosaur footprints on the Isle of Wight
I recently returned from the Isle of Wight, where we stayed in a chalet resort. If you can imagine Hi-de-Hi, you’ll be pretty much on the money, and this place was quaint and colourful, and decaying at the same speed as the cliffs were crumbling into the sea.
I was quite taken with the island. I saw Red Squirrels for the first time, and wandered the coast looking for fossils. The most amazing sight of all are these natural sandstone casts of dinosaur footprints, resting on the beach near Brook.
Blimey, those Iguanodons were huge.
Alien Moon Launch Party
Dear people! At 7pm on Thursday, 3 May we shall be having a launch party to celebrate the release of The Alien Moon, the fourth Mythical 9th Division book. It’s at the Bookseller Crow bookshop in Crystal Palace, which is one of the nicest places in the world.
There will be all sorts of exciting stuff, including a REAL LIFE YETI!
So please come along, it’ll be lovely to see you all.
Harold at the Discover Story Centre
I headed up to the Discover Story Centre in Stratford yesterday to run some workshops. It’s such a wonderful place, and the new Superheroes interactive exhibit is awesome!
I drew some yetis, vikings and, of course, Harold and Pigsticks. And the nicest thing was seeing the children draw their own Harolds and Pigsticks(s) later on. I haven’t seen people draw these characters yet, so it was a real thrill!
Here are a couple of them.
School author visits
I thought I’d give a heads up to Sarah McIntyre’s post about Society of Authors’ Talk on school visits. There’s lots of useful tidbits if you check the #CWIG or #SchoolVisits hashtag on Twitter.
I do a lot of school events, and I know for a fact that a lot of this stuff is what you can only learn from experience. It’s probably incredibly useful for any new authors or illustrators out there. And speaking of that there’s a great CWIG Conference if you’re a children’s writer/illustrator. It’s prohibitively expensive, which is why I won’t be going (as much as I’d love to), but if you can afford it you won’t regret it.
Sarah’s doing a great job promoting the children’s side of the Society of Authors. Back when I started out with the Mousehunter, I jumped at the chance of becoming a member. It was the thing that said I’d made it, and being a part of the Society was like joining the Dennis the Menace club (but for grown-ups).
There wasn’t much going on for children’s writers there at that point – SCWBI was and is far more socially organised – and a hideous experience at a Society event all about reading your work aloud meant I never renewed. (I still get nightmares of being critiqued by a load of fusty adult book writers. I definitely didn’t go there to be critiqued.)
Any way, this event looked great, and I wish it had been more like this when I joined 5 years ago – heck, if it keeps doing things like this, maybe I’ll join again soon.
The Alien Moon arrives
Obviously, it’s a tremendously exciting day. I went to the Walker offices and picked up a copy of the brand new yeti book. It’s looking awesome, I’m so excited. And it has a black cover!
