Last week I went in to HarperCollins Publishers and worked with the designer to put all of the illustrations for Duncan Ball’s “My Sister Has A Big Black Beard” into place. It is all done on a computer - I had scanned the images at home and had emailed them to the designer (and the publisher and Duncan) so he could make them smaller or shift them a bit to the right or left- whatever was needed.

It is always a fascinating process. Sometimes a designer might put an illustration in the middle of a space where it looks balanced,












but maybe the illustrator wants it down at the bottom to add to the feeling that it’s a teddy bear that’s been squished flat on the ground, for example.












Or the illustrator may want it up at the top to make it feel bigger if it’s the scary door to the staff room at school,











or may want it off centre and odd because the character is a bit odd.

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It is a delight to work with a designer who also gets a kick out of using the positioning to add to the feel of an illustration so together we can make everything work really well. The illustrator doesn’t usually, or even often, get to work directly with the designer at this stage so it was a BLAST!

Now we’re working on finding a FUNKY pattern for the front cover!

I have had several publishers ask to see my next project so I think this year it is time to write another book. But...I’m taking a little holiday over Christmas and New Year so won’t think about it for a week or so. That was easy!