I've finished my book!

Writing a book is not a walk in the park... And writing and illustrating a book is not a walk in the park either - It's more like a marathon with several hundred hills and a few more pitfalls on the road ahead. The mission of having an idea, writing it down, working out the structure into a 12 DPS book and then convincing a publisher to print your work is in itself a mission beyond belief. But then the real work starts ... the edits, the tweaks, the scamps, the roughs, the scanning in, the photoshopping, the re-drawing, the scrapping, the re-roughs and then finally the colour illustrations.

Last week was a momentous occasion for me. I completed the final illustration of my book 'A Book of Butterflies'. I don't think I've ever felt such achievement. Have I ever had a small scribble of an idea and ran with it for so long and to such an extent that it has blossomed into it's own living thing? Okay, okay, books aren't alive ... but the joy they bring to the reader. That certainly is!

It might sound pretentious, I don't care. I feel I have a right for a little self congratulation!

Here is a little diagram of what I would call the 'very simplified' version of events in the making of a book ready for publication!

'A Box of Butterflies' Out April 2018. Published by Magination Press.