Dear Abyss, letters from an author illustrator into the abyss...

October 2026
Dear Abyss,

September disappeared in the blink of an eye. There was a lovely holiday, a not so lovely car issue involving a flat battery and a car that lost its marbles when it didn’t recognise its new battery, and more technical issues to do with formatting a book.

After learning more than I ever knew there was to know about setting up bleed and printer crop marks, I managed to set up bleed and crop marks on the cover file, but the book block gave me more trouble, only to discover that I don’t have the correct software to do the task in photoshop. I found crop marks in windows where I have built the body of my book, but contrarily these only appeared on screen, and didn’t save onto the file, where they would have been useful…

Anyway I have come to realise the some of these extras were either added, or not needed by my previous printer.

And so it seems that I
learn something new with every book I write and publish, and as I sign off, my picture book is still very much brewing…

Bye for now

AMS

PS but the to do list is all ticked off!

To do list

·       Write book  ✔

·       Illustrate book ✔

·       Edit book ✔

·       Write blurb ✔

·       Rewrite… ✔

·       Make cover ✔

·       Write dedication ✔

·       Purchase ISBN ✔

·       Get print quote ✔

·       Set price ✔

·       Register book with Nielsen ✔

·       Send files to printer ✔

·       Breath (if going down the rabbit hole of finding out the shortcut for a tick counts, then…) ✔

 

 

Dear Abyss, The book is finished, I think... sharing the journey of building a picture book.

 March 2026

Dear Abyss,

The book is finished, I think… all the words and pictures seem to be getting along, so I’ve closed the book (file), and come out from under my rock to have a play with technology.

We’ve already had false spring, and now we seem to be dipping back into winter again, …resisting the temptation to go back into hibernation here, but with a theme of sleep, there is a good deal of yawning involved, from the characters and the author. I really must write something more lively, but it is a bedtime story, so I’m probably on the right track with yawning… zzzz

Bye for now

AMS

Books don’t write themselves, they are often dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line.

 Picture book brewing!

September finds me knee deep in paint.

 

There is still a picture book brewing, and at this point I have to remind myself that
books don’t write themselves, they are often dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line. There is always a technical issue of some kind; in this case it has been a dead scanner. I battled with the old scanner to no avail, before giving in to the inevitable and buying a shiny new one.

Shiny new things can often be very nice, but in the case of technology I find that new usually means different, and that means working out how to get the new appliance to do what I want it to do, but we have now come to an agreement, and seem to be speaking the same language.

A few draft scans have been done and inserted into the text of the book, so the first draft is now taking shape and the magic of pictures and words merging together to tell a story has begun…

Self Publishing is all about stubborn

 Self Publishing is all about being stubborn… why?

·        As a self publisher you’ve likely already come up against some sort of barrier in traditional publishing: not securing an agent, not finding a publisher to publish your work, or simply decided not to send any more work out to squelch about in a slush pile.

·        Finding out that writing the story is not the end of the process, there are more skills to learn: editing, formatting, illustrating and making all of this stick into a memory stick to send to a printer.

·        Then there’s the promotions and marketing, and generally getting the word out there, about the amazing new book that you now have to sell.

·        There are websites, and blogs and a whole host of ways to get a book noticed online.

·        And pretty soon you realise that writing the book is just the beginning, and learning curves keep hitting you, sharper and steeper than you thought possible. The sense of achievement at rising to each new challenge is amazing, but also exhausting.

So what keeps a self publisher going? Sheer stubbornness and an unshakable belief in the book or books, that have to find their way out of the boxes and into the hands of readers…

So that’s where I’m at, feeling exhausted but stubbornly carrying on…

Picture Book Brewing

 

Story building

It started with a theme, and it meandered through several storylines, characters jumping in and making it their own, but what was needed was something different, a different viewpoint. And so now I have the words, characters talking to each other, a beginning, a middle and an end.

So what now…? Colour! Literally – paint, brushes, water, and lots of paper, because the first picture, much like the first paragraph written, is not likely to make it as far as the finished book… let the magic commence!  

My work in progress is based around sleep and bedtime stories

My work in progress is based around sleep and bedtime stories, and all this talk about sleep and being tired is definitely making me sleepy, which is the desired effect after all. A bedtime story needs to tell a story but also lead towards a drowsy state of mind. So not only am I yawning doing my rewrites, but now I’m blogging about all things sleepy and drowsy related, the yawns are definitely brewing…

I’ll keep it brief here, because in reality I seem to be writing into an abyss, so if you’re reading this, welcome! Please have a wander around my website, bring your friends and pop along to my website bookshop where my books are gathered in the hope of finding new homes.

For the books that need to be read - I will fight technology!

I've been having some website issues lately to the point where I'm coming back to my trusty blog to regroup. So where can I go form here? I have books relying on me to find homes for them and send them out into the world to be read...

The journey has been a long and varied one:

My books have been in book shops...

                                                                       and in library displays...

I bought bright orange envelopes - to send the books out into to the world in style.

I knitted sheep as quirky promotion...

...it worked, so I knitted more sheep.

I knitted some cats - the ginger one, not the tabby!

But most of all I've sat or stood behind my books at book signings and sold direct to readers.

...and played around with book displays.
                                               From books going on holiday...

...to a horse display, (yes I knitted the horse and knotted the hay net)

to promote my latest book.

So you see - I am determined - and I will launch my books out into the world!

#LostinaBook #rummage4words 

Book signing in York

 

Exciting new book signing venue:

Clifton Library, York, is the venue for my next book signing Tuesday 7th April.

I'll have my books and a little gathering of sheep... my sheep seem to have captured everyone's imagination, and always raise a smile.

What is it about sheep I wonder that grabs everyone's attention, even more than the cats in two of my other books, though surely more people can relate to cats than sheep... or am I missing something? Are we suddenly a country of sheep lovers, there are hens in the gardens near my house, but no sheep... as far as I know... 

Anyway, I suppose when animals are fictional it doesn't matter what they are, it's not as if we have to accommodate the real thing in our houses, as long as we can fit the fictional ones into our imaginations. And with that in mind - I'm working on a story with a giraffe in it, for no better reason than I think giraffes are really cool and work well with an idea that was buzzing around in my head.

What age are picture books for?

I'm often asked what age my books are for... that has to be the hardest question of all, harder even than how long does it take to write a book...?

Picture books are enjoyed by a wide age range, from babies who enjoy the pictures and the sound of your voice, through toddlers who start to get the story, and love the repetition of being read a favourite story. As children grow they will understand a bit more of what is going on in the story, and ultimately enjoy reading along or reading in turns - they may be able to read a chapter book, but it doesn't mean they can't still enjoy a picture book. And they can still enjoy being read to...

Picture books are the perfect length for a bedtime story - what better way to end the day than to read the whole book...! 

New sheep - wool crisis averted

The emergency wool trip turned up a new wool  - and here is the resulting sheep, slightly different, but different is good in handcrafted...  

So here is the first of the new flock:

So now all I have to do is turn the rest of this ball of wool into a flock of sheep in time for Saturday when I'm booked in at the Guildhall in York's city centre for a Christmas craft and gift fair.