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We spent a late afternoon/early evening walking around one of our favorite places, Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve near Skegness. A minute walk from the beach is a stretch of salt marsh with a carpet of lilac colored sea lavender. Note: Bonus sky lark in sea lavender photograph :-) We saw a butterfly fly past, it […]

I love books, the feel of them, the smell of them, but it wasn’t always that way. I was late to the love books party :( I didn’t have parents who read to me or valued education as a child, I was partially deaf for much of my vital school years and as a result […]

There’s clearly something wrong with me, I’m enjoying querying (some) literary agents! It’s the challenge of researching a literary agent to try to determine what they might like to see in a query/pitch and it’s so easy to get it wrong. So, I’m happily checking Facebook (been posting some funny agent query tips) and Twitter […]

GHOSTBUSTERS – Official Trailer on YouTube 2 mins 37 seconds long. Over 38,000,000 views. Over 980,000 dislikes. Over 280,000 likes. Over 280,000 comments: no I didn’t read them all :-) Looks like sexism ain’t dead! You know what would be hilarious. 30+ years from now there’s another Ghostbusters reboot with four men as the leads […]

Gordon Bennett! it ain’t half difficult to draw a picture of yourself. I found it quite difficult to cartoonize myself and David. Drawing David was easier, but drawing a cartoon portrait of myself was harder and I’m not happy! – with either of them! They were my first attempt. I’ve never cartoonized us before, myself […]

There is nothing better than walking across the beach at anytime of the day, but at 3.30am on a warm July morning there is nothing quite like it. On one side of the beach, dancing across the shallow waves was the moonlight. On the other side the sun was waking up on the horizon. Kissing […]

I think I’m finally getting the hang of writing picture book queries for literary agents, I’m even beginning to enjoy the challenge :-) I’m dealing with the agent queries for the most part, Marie is busy with illustrations (real work). Update: All five literary agent query letters. Query for That Greedy Goat Just Cannot Stay! […]

It was turning dark and we spotted a couple of young rats looking to see what pickings the tourists had left behind during the day on the boating lake. We were watching with interest when one of the rats spotted us and ran into the other rat causing a chain reaction. Without looking the startled […]

Hubby woke me up before the birds and took me on an early morning walk across the beach where we saw a couple of seals bobbing around in the sea. So we serenaded them with Mr Sandman from the beach. And do you know what… They seem to like it and swam closer to the […]

My wife and I are an unpublished author/illustrator couple: I write and my wife writes and illustrates (yes, she’s the real talent :-)). We are currently in literary agent querying mode, the goal is long term representation with an agent/agency who will put our picture book manuscripts in the hands of publishing houses that are […]