I’m extremely lucky to have Ritva Voutila illustrating my next story. Not only is her style wacky and fun but she’s brought the scenes alive. The skin tones, the movement, the colour, the sneaky alien tentacles that seem to be exploring everything tell their own story.
I’ve arranged for a sneak preview:
No Such Thing - Copyright Blake Education
Pop over to www.ritvavoutila.com and have a look at Ritva’s work.
Please go on in and have a great decade, because if we all survive 2012, 2020 is just around the corner!
I found this little gift for writers:
Have a great year!
Bren
A couple more roughs of pages from Jan D’Silva for Go Go Gecko and your previewing pleasure:
(removed as book is now published)
If you want to see more of what Jan D’Silva is doing head over to the studio at Moving Ideas Animation
Anchovy Circus is on the move! This is Connah’s rough of anchovies mashed together to make an elephant. Love this elephant!
(Removed as book is now published)
Remember, you can find Connah at www.connahbrecon.com and www.GetDead.Etsy.com
Who in their right mind would think up a circus made of dried anchovies?
Anchovy Circus… it’s the kind of story a mad person might dream up if they were sitting around one day putting random unrelated words together just to see if it would spark story ideas… oh, while we’re on the subject, do you have any thing for Cosmic Lobster? No?
Anyway, some odd person made up a story called Anchovy Circus, and some extremely farsighted publisher thought it was a good idea and challenged a very talented illustrator to make the story come alive.
Connah Brecon is doing sensational things with anchovies and characters and I hope he’s not cursing the storyline too much. It’s about a boy who doesn’t like anchovies and hides them under his bed, then he notices that as they dry out, they twist and stick together into strange shapes, strange animal shapes… so he makes a circus out of them… after that, things really get wacky.
Connah has very kindly lent me a few roughs to show you:
(Removed as book is now published)
If you like his funky style as much as I do, check out www.connahbrecon.com
and you can buy some of his artwork at www.GetDead.Etsy.com.
The books I signed contracts for a few months ago with Blake Education are having life breathed into them courtesy of some very fine illustrators.
Jan D’Silva is doing wonderful stuff with Go Go Gecko, and is one half of a partnership that runs an animation studio called Moving Ideas Animation.
I know you all want to see the dancing gecko so here is a sneak peak:
(Removed as book is now published)
Thanks Jan, these are gorgeous!
I received an online honourable mention from Ellen Datlow as part of her search for her Best of Horror 2009 collection for my short YA story “Being Bella Wang”.
I spend most of my time writing novels that haven’t sold BUT I’m a lover of the short form and most of my short science fiction does find homes. The shortest of the shorts is flash fiction which is usually anywhere from 50 words to 500 words, and perfect for online reading.
Antipodean SF is a downunder online mag that specialises in flash fiction and can be found at antisf.com. Five of my flash publications were with them and are now archived at the National Library of Australia as part of their Pandora project.
Kim Stanley Robinson recently challenged 8 science fiction writers to write some flash set 100 years into the future. Now, while not all the novelists grasped the concept of flash, Geoff Ryman clearly didn’t attempt it and just posted a mini essay (and that is fine, novel writing is a far cry from flash fiction and not everyone is talented in every area), there are still some fun quick reads here, and a contest if you want to have a go yourself. You have less than a month to come up with 350 words: New Scientist.
Signed two contracts today for children’s educational fiction with Blake Ed. They are part of the ‘Sparklers’ fiction series. I already have three ‘Gigglers’ with Blake Ed. They are a sensational company to work with and the ‘Gigglers’ were top class books. Can’t wait to see the finished product.
