April update

Hello! How the heck are you? I am just emerging from my crazy busy book deadline cave and have come blinking out into the light and I’ve got so many things to tell you about!

Finishing books

Not to labour the point, and if you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you will have seen that I’ve started most of my posts over the last few months saying how busy I’ve been with these deadlines, but I have been ridiculously busy through last year! Over the whole year really, but particularly over the autumn and winter. It all culminated these last few weeks and months with both of the books I was working on due within a few weeks of each other, and a busy month of teaching in February.

Deadlines are funny things aren’t they? It all feels so intense and important, and never ending, and like this point in the future will forever be in the future, and then suddenly, it’s over, and it all feels like a fever dream. In February I handed in the artwork for the first book, after an intense period of painting, then I moved immediately on to the next book, and another intense period of painting, and I handed in that book a couple of weeks ago, then I breathed a brief sigh of relief before hopping onto a cover for new book for the publisher to take to Bologna. And then on Thursday this week I got an email approving the cover, and like that, suddenly I was free of immediate and intense deadlines!

I’ve felt slightly freewheeling since then, I’ve tidied the studio, which was in a right old state, recorded a studio tour video for here, which needs to be edited, and then I will post, hopefully next week. I’ve wandered around town, feeling a sense of freedom, but not quite sure what to do with it. As is the way, I channelled it into an obsessive search for the perfect pair of trousers! I had some birthday money waiting to be spent when I had time, and typically because I actually wanted to buy something, I tried on about 30 pairs of trousers, and they all just felt weird. Maybe it’s like that thing where you say a word over and over until it’s lost all meaning, by the end, every pair of trousers I tried on just looked…odd. Anyway, I ended up googling “best trousers for pear shape” (Apparently high waisted is the thing) and bought a couple of pairs on Vinted. So now I have bought some I can’t return! Eek!

As well as this aimless, lost feeling, I’ve had a few lovely things happen…

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I went to the book launch of

Tor Freeman

’s new book: Shirley vs the Green Menace, from her new, three book trilogy Boss of the Underworld. It’s such a brilliant book, and I’m so proud and happy for Tor! Congratulations to Tor!

In a perfectly timed way, I was invited to the moving in drinks to celebrate T&H’s new offices on the same night as Tor’s book launch, so I dropped by for an hour on the way. The new office is wonderful! Suitably stylish for a stylish publisher: a converted warehouse with fancy architectural features I don’t have the words for! Light filled and spacious with delicious paint colours. It was lovely to catch up with some of the team I worked on Dear Vincent with, and to meet some fellow author and illustrators.

Here I am with fellow author and illustratorsJenny Jacoby, Harriet Russel and Clara Booth

And I got a first look at the T&H Rights Guide - excitingly, my debut author/illustrator book is on the cover!! This is doubly exciting because I am just so proud and pleased to be working on my first self authored book, and it’s such a compliment and vote of confidence to be chosen for the cover!! I was thrilled when they told me! I managed to nab a rare copy at the party, which isn’t easy because Rights Guides are like gold dust around Bologna time. If you don’t know what a Rights Guide is, it’s a special catalogue created especially for a book fair, in this case Bologna, that features all the books they are selling in for that sales period - normally 6 months. It feels pretty surreal to not only be on the cover, but in the guide at all, because in my previous life in-house, I worked on many many Rights Guides, frequently right up to the wire, having spent the months beforehand working hard to get all the cover artwork and book specs confirmed in time for the foreign rights team to sell their hearts out at the fair. They were telling me at the party that they have just done the Bologna briefing, where design and editorial do a show and tell to the rights team presenting all the books the team will be selling at Bologna. I was always intimately involved in all of this, and it is so strange (and wonderful) to be on the other side! I wonder if I will ever not find it strange!!?

The other wonderful thing that happened is I found out that Dear Vincent has been selected as one of the 150 “Brilliant Books” on the BRAW Amazing Bookshelf. This is part of the Bologna Ragazzi awards, a prize aimed at highlighting the most beautiful and innovative picture books published worldwide in the recent period, selected from a total of 3858 titles submitted by publishers from 68 countries and regions around the world.

The Amazing Bookshelf was created, as part of the prize. They explain: Every year, we're thrilled to announce the BolognaRagazzi Awards winners and special mentions - but we can't help thinking: what about all the other brilliant books? That's why we created The BRAW Amazing Bookshelf! Showcasing over 150 standout titles from across the globe, this exhibition gives well-deserved spotlight to the many talented illustrators who entered.

I saw a post about the Amazing Bookshelf on instagram a few days ago and thought: “how nice” and thought no more about it, so it was a wonderful surprise when they told me at the party!! I’ve been looking at all the other shortlisted books, and there’s are so many beautiful books there, so it feels amazing to be there!

The books are displayed in an exhibition of hanging books at Bologna all week, here is Dear Vincent hanging in the show, sent by the lovely Anna Ridley, Head of Children’s Publishing at T&H!

Talking of Bologna…

…anyone else got FOMO? I already have, and it’s not even started yet! Luckily, me and my brill friends

Ruby Wright

and

Anna Wilson

anticipated we would feel fomo and strategically booked our own DIY artists retreat in Matlock next week while everyone is in Bologna. I feel incredibly grateful to my past self for arranging it! In fact, I am incredibly grateful to Ruby for suggesting it!! A while back, when it got to that time of year when it was time to think about booking Bologna or not, I was deep in the aforementioned book deadline hole, and couldn’t imagine anything beyond immediate sketching and painting deadlines, and i think I was also waiting for various advance payments to be paid, so it just didn’t feel viable. I also had the sense that it probably makes Bologna feel a bit more special if you don’t go every year. I certainly remember that when I used to go for work in my capacity as Art Director/Head of Design/Head of Campbell Books it was noticeable that things felt pretty similar year to year, but you noticed the bigger market changes every other year. So I also had that sense that perhaps it was good to take a break for a year. Not to mention that although Bologna is exhilarating, inspiring, exciting, it is also draining, overwhelming and can be a challenge to your sense of self as an illustrator. The sheer amount of beautiful books out there is both inspiring and insert word here. So when Ruby suggested we do a uk break and make it our own retreat, I was well up for it! Anna was quickly on board too, and our mini Bologna fomo retreat was born!!

The plan is to chat, plan, sketch, rest, eat, and generally have a creative and artistic time together, and I’m super excited for it!

Me, Anna and Ruby met on an Orange Beak retreat in 2019! It feels like so long ago in one sense, and in the other, only yesterday. It was the summer before I started the MA, and I was so full of excitement about leaving work, and embarking on a life full of art, drawing and children’s books that the MA wasn’t enough for me. I was greedy for more, and so I booked to do the retreat, and I’m so glad I did. It was an amazing week, I filled sketchbooks, the sun shone every day, and I made wonderful new friends!

So, as I finish this post, I am realising I must rush off or I will miss my train!! Kerep an eye out on Notes here and over on IG where I am sure to be posting updates of our retreat!

Until next time!

Ella xx