conversations with an art director
'Buddy' is the new picture book I'm working on, it's about a dog. During my last meeting with my art director Ness she asked me "Who would play Buddy if they made it into a film?" (She chose Natalie Portman to play Cat straight away, a good choice) and then she said ... "Bill Murray?" And now I can't stop picturing Buddy as being a dog version of Bill Murray... which is no bad thing.
I'm not sure if this sort of conversation is normal but even when we were discussing 'Otto' last year (new book out in July) Ness said "Otto's just like Tom Hanks isn't he, everybody loves him"... which is probably the best thing anyone has, or will, ever say about him.
Escape.
After a long weekend outside in the sun, my mind has wandered to outside spaces. Imagine if you walked to the bottom of your garden and found... a beautiful treehouse? Or a little boat to row lazily down a river? or even a pretty summer house to sit and write in... I've been daydreaming about boats and treehouses for years. In fact the first thing i'd do if I had a big boat is put up strings of fairy lights, hire a blues band and have a party at sunset... Sigh.
fun furniture
I really want that T.V, and the suitcase chair. The little odd table with drawers looks like it could just walk off on it's own somewhere... T.V set by Mike Chen, table by Valentin Loellmann, suitcase armchair by Katie Thompson, knitted stools by Claire-Anne O'Brien, All found here
Cover love
Have you ever looked on The Book Cover Archive? It's eye candy for book lovers, I've picked a few that leapt out at me. The 'Black Beauty' cover is part of the new series embroidered by Jillian Tamaki for Penguin, and the last cover I also found here.
bank holiday with BILLIE HOLIDAY
I always work to music, and my long-standing love is for Billie Holiday. I also listen to her in the car, and yesterday I drove through the sun-drenched countryside, windows down, wearing sundress and sunglasses, with Billie singing... it was joyful.
Today it's a bank holiday but I'm back to working on my book, I'm starting to draw out the characters in ink, to get a feel for how they move around. I'm also designing new bear masks for an event I'm doing in Oxford next month, I will probably make these outside as it's such a beautiful day. Hope you are all having a sunshine-filled, Pimms-fuelled, happy holiday.