The House on Hare Hill

Hallo Sailor!

The House on Hare Hill has arrived.

I was very excited to see the finished book - that zingy feeling that I got the first time I saw a published book with my name on the front has not dimmed with time. Hare Hill has a lot more of 'me' in it - my slightly daft humour and skewed view of the world. You might be able to tell that I wrote it during the airing of 'The Great British Bake Off'.

So here's a synopsis: Unlike other hares, Little Hare has given up boxing and taken up yoga. She goes for a walk in the woods where she meets an unlikely array of woodland animals who are all taking part in their species' favourite sports. However, she gets lost and ends up finding a house owned by a jolly handsome chap with the most fabulous set of ears. And guess what he's going to do this summer....

If you would like a copy and you live on the Isle of Wight, you can find me at THESE locations or you can purchase via my ETSY shop or Amazon. All books are signed with a special message if you can let me know who it is for. 

Have a wonderful summer x

The New Moon

Hurrah the first proofs have arrived. The thing is.... there are lots of revisions to make. It's only when you have something that resembles a book, that certain aspects come to life. For example, I had set the text at 30pt (text is always measured in points) and when I held the proof in my hand I realised that was MUCH too big!! 

The moon on the first end page also didn't come out as I had expected. Looking back at Flossie Bonce, I liked that moon so much more, so I pinched it for Hare Hill as well!

The old moon

The new moon

You might notice (if you are very good at noticing small things) that the shadow under the hares has also changed. I decided it looked like they were sitting in a pool of wet cement; that will only lead to trouble.

Now I have the awful wait... the postman will have palpitations every time he comes up my path as I snatch the door open to see if today is the day that proof#2 turns up!! Wally the Chihuahua also loves to see the postie, and each day they play the 'who will leave with the postman's fingers' game.

Sorry postie.

The House on Hare Hill

After a monumental weekend of designing pages, drawing last spreads and deciding on a dedication, The House on Hare Hill is now with the printer for it's first proof. 

I always get very impatient at this time, waiting for the post to arrive. Today is Good Friday, so no chance of any mail today. And then there's the looooooong Easter weekend with a Bank Holiday stuck on the end. I just want to see my book!! I have a really good feeling about the little Hare story. Here's a summary:

It's springtime and all the local Hares are out practicing their favourite sport, boxing. However, Little Hare has never felt the love for boxing, she likes Yoga.

She sets off for a walk in the woods to find some berries for dinner (most specifically, Maryberries) and bumps into a whole host of woodland animals taking part in their national sports. There are golfing weasels, cricketing foxes and skateboarding owls. 

Little Hare eventually ends up at Big Hare's house, whom she rather takes a shine to. He has the most fabulous set of ears. And a totally awesome idea for the place where he lives: Hare Hill.


I took some photos whilst working on the last spread.

Drawing a layout of the whole page

Dip pen, waterproof ink and watercolour
paper over the top of the layout

 

 

 

Ink drawing of just one element of the page

And a colour version of the background
in ink and chalk pastels

Next post will be my box of books!! 

Hello British Summer Time!

British Summer Time officially starts at 2am tomorrow morning, the sun is shining and Husband Marriner has mown the grass for the first time this year. Life is good.

This week has been like the birth of a new era for us. The new book is going well and I am on target to have it published by the end of May, as I had written in my 2014 Creative Workbook, back in January. Here is a bit of a spread I have been working on this week:

On larger areas I have been using my Dad's chalk pastels again, with the skies in watercolour. I usually give the pastels a loose wash of watercolour in a similar colour as I really love the lines that my large brushes make. Little Hare has been evolving as I thought she might. I may have to go back to some of the earlier spreads and change her appearance a little. The line that Little Hare is sniffing took ages to get right. It was created using on the the brushes on Photoshop, but I had to fiddle faddle about for a long time before I got the one I thought looked a bit like a smell. And let me tell you, representing in 2D a concept that is only recognised by your olfactory nerves was no small feat!!!!!

By the way, Flossie Bonce and Wally and Bert, BFFs are both now available on Amazon. 
Here for Flossie
Here for Wally and Bert

Drawing with Wet Stuff

Hurricane winds and most of Britain under 3ft of water is not conducive for thinking nice Spring-y, Mad March Hare thoughts, but that is what I have been doing. Book number 5 is well under way. I've been buying daffodils and looking longingly at photos of lambs to try to bring forth the spirit of all things yellow as my colour pallette for The House on Hare Hill is yellow, blue and green. Somehow, I've always seen it as a very sunny book.

I've hoiked the dip pen out of retirement and started drawing with waterproof ink. I've forgotten how beautiful the lines are - and how challenging the medium is. Woe betide those who forget it's still wet and rub their hand over it. With my trusty Staedler pens, you can chuck it around as soon as you've drawn with it. Dip pen is a much more measured approach, needing a lot of coaxing and patience.

 In my Right Brain Business Plan (see this BLOG POST) I have suggested, perhaps unwisely, that I will have this book ready for sale by the end of May. It seemed ages away, but time flies pretty quickly, especially when I have quite a few school visits coming up and exam revision to supervise! 

I am learning a lot about Hares, and in the new book there will be a lot of lovely facts, both true and slightly made up, about the superior cousins of rabbits. Check out the Hare Preservation Trust for more information HERE. For instance, did you know Hares do not live in burrows, but in 'forms', where they scrape away the grass and top soil and hunker down in the undergrowth. Did you also know that Hares can accelerate to 45mph. That's faster than my car!!

Business Lingo and Wild Hares Boxing.

Hurray, we have made it through January without being washed away from Scarlett Inc HQ. As I sit here at home, wrapped up in 65 layers of clothing, the wind is tearing along the south coast of England and chucking a whole load of rain at us for good measure. July 2013 seems such a long time ago, when I was sitting in 40 degrees in my studio.  It seems like a good moment to reflect and plan.

So far my major plan of the year is to publish The House on Hare Hill. I'm still at the tinkering phase at the moment; I have pulled together the first spread but am deciding whether to do black and white drawing and colour digitally or have a mixture of digital and watercolour. What do you think? This is my digital colouring (not finished.)

I do love this part of my job; it's the equivalent of the writer's blank page. I quite often change things as I go along when new ideas or obvious problems jump out at me. 

The other thing I am working on is the marketing side. I had a bit of a eureka moment when I realised I that being a creator of books is just like any other good business idea. Take Lush for example. They started off making their soaps and smellies on their kitchen table and upsized as their customer base expanded. My customers tell me that they really enjoy my product (business speak for bearing my soul in a book) so all I have to do now is crack the market! It is really counter intuitive to use business lingo when you are a creative person describing the love you pour into your project. Stories become Products, friends and customers become Client Base and deciding whether to be in a craft marquee or have your own pitch becomes Competitive Analysis. Luckily I have come across a fabulous book called The Right Brain Business Plan which has helped me enormously.

The last time I wrote a business plan was in 1998 when I applied to the Prince's Youth Business Trust for assistance. It was a dry and crusty affair (the business plan, not the PYBT) full of guesstimates of income and spreadsheets of my outgoings. Nasty. This is what my new business plan looks like.

For more info on The Right Brain Business Plan click Here. I'm thoroughly enjoying the process. Watch this space to see if I really can Expand My Client Base!!