Have you been out today?

So this week I have started work on the third draft of my children's novel for David Fickling Books. Last time I read through the typescript I started feeling rather sleepy by the end of chapter three. I took this to be a bad sign. This view is confirmed by a reader's report from a ten year old son of a postman who thought that "the beginning part was a bit long". Happily he was pretty enthusiastic about the rest of it though so there's more than a glimmer of hope for the end result. I am currently taking a hatchet to the early chapters with the comments of both the ten year old and my editor (Mr Fickling himself) very much in mind.

In other news (actually not news as I mentioned it before but never mind): I shall be present at the DFC stand at MCM Expo this weekend, along with fellow DFC alumni Sarah McIntyre, Gary Northfield, Ben Haggarty, the Etherington Brothers, Neill Cameron, John Aggs and Emma Vieceli. Oh, and I think Faz Choudhury and Jamie Smart may be knocking about for some of the time too. Come along and say hello to us all and buy books and get badges and sketches and all that stuff. You know you want to. You do.

I'll be leaving slightly early on the Saturday and arriving slightly late on the Sunday so as to facilitate my attending the social event of the year: my friend Nicky's Eurovision Song Contest party in Worthing. Apparently there will be crisps.

A6, Daler Rowney (for a change) sketchbook number 8, beginning December '96.




Blimey, a bit of colour. I do apologise. Have a strong cup of tea and breathe deeply for a while and I'm sure the shock will pass.






Hmm ... I would have expected not to still be making R.E.M. references by '97. Probably a hangover from when Jamie Hewlett and, particularly, Philip Bond (who I met very briefly in Bristol at the weekend as it happens) used to drop snatches of their lyrics into the margins of their early Tank Girl and Wired World strips in Deadline magazine.


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Just to remind you all that I'll be knocking about at the Bristol comics convention this weekend. I have a signing session from 3.00 till 4.00 on Saturday afternoon should anyone wish to get a sketch or a book from me. I'll have copies of Good Dog, Bad Dog with me as well as the last few copies of the GDBD minis I put together for Hi-Ex in March and a handful of copies of the latest printing of the Life Of A Pen book. Or just stop by and say hello. I'll be glad to see you.

In other business here is a bear and a boy...

A6, Daler Rowney (for a change) sketchbook number 8, beginning December '96.




I think Jolly Jeff the scary clown genuinely got put onto a shaky shaky collecting tin in aid of something or other at the bookshop I worked at at the time. Not sure how effective he was in encouraging charitable donations from the good people of Cambridge.







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Ooh, another generous review of me book over at Down The Tubes.

Ta very much.

A6, Daler Rowney (for a change) sketchbook number 8, beginning December '96.











Click images for biggerosity

A6, Daler Rowney (for a change) sketchbook number 8, beginning December '96.











Click images for biggerosity