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At least two fun things are happening today! First, Cecily Milway is going to school for book week dressed as Astra from Cakes in Space. (Big thanks to her writer-illustrator dad for tweeting the photo!)



The other thing is that I've joined PopJam and they're going to give me a shout out this afternoon! If you're on PopJam, come find me at 'SarahMcIntyre'. And my co-author Philip Reeve joined just last night, so you can look out for him at 'Philip_Reeve'.



I found out about PopJam at Zoom Rockman's party from PopJam Content Producer Melisa Hasan ('melisa'), who encouraged me to join. And my first friends there were Zoom ('Zoom_Rockman') and Jamie Smart ('FindChaffy')! The app is free to download, and it's very creative and drawing-based. I haven't had a lot of time yet to explore it, but it seems really exciting. Also, PopJam has an 11pm bedtime, which is actually rather healthy.

Blog written with my co-pilot Philip Reeve: So our shiny silver space shuttle set us down in sunny Glasgow, where we’d been invited by Scottish Book Trust to do one of their Authors Live events.



These events take place at the BBC’s Glasgow studios; there’s a small invited audience of children from local schools, but the show is also broadcast live online to any other schools who want to sign up for it.



We arrived on Wednesday afternoon to meet Scottish Book Trust’s Heather Collins and some of the team who were going to be in charge of the broadcast. Part of the Cakes in Space show involves a video transmission from some spoon-crazy alien life-forms called the Poglites. At all the festivals we’ve done we’ve used a video which Philip and his wife Sarah Reeve shot on his phone, of two Poglite puppets in a spaceship set made out of old polystyrene packaging.




But to be shown by the BBC it needed to be ‘broadcast quality’, so we brought the puppets with us and re-shot the whole thing in one of the vaguely futuristic-looking stairwells at the BBC.





The actual show took place on Thursday morning. We suited up and waited nervously in the hotel lobby for the shuttle to take us to BBC HQ…





Filming was to take place in an open atrium area in the middle of the BBC building, which had been decorated for the purpose with stars and silver podia (grammar). It takes a LOT of people to arrange even a simple broadcast like this. Here are some of the team…



And here are some of the audience - a weird and wonderful collection of interstellar oddballs shipped in from a neighbouring star-cluster.


Photo by Alan Peebles

They seemed friendly though. One of them, Abena, brought us this nice letter, so we knew they Came In Peace.



We’d never done a live broadcast before, so we were a bit nervous, but everything seemed to go well.


Photo by Alan Peebles


Photo by Alan Peebles


Photo by Alan Peebles


Photo by Alan Peebles


Photo by Alan Peebles

And you can see for yourself, because one of the great things about the Authors Live scheme is that recordings of the shows are kept on the Scottish Book Trust website, where anyone can watch them whenever they fancy. So we now have a lasting record of the Cakes In Space show, which future generations will be able to look at and say, ‘WHAT were you THINKING?’


Click on the image to watch the video!

It’s especially nice to have this record because this was the last Cakes in Space show we’ll be doing (at least for a while). In the autumn we’ll be unveiling a whole new show based on Pugs of the Frozen North. Big thank yous to Heather and her team from Scottish Book Trust, teacher Jennifer Buchan (who created Author Live's Cakes in Space Learning Resource page), and Janice Forsyth, Donald, Irene, Neil, Liz, photographer Alan Peebles and everyone at BBC Scotland for making it all possible.



While we were in Glasgow, we also managed to catch up with Sarah's Glasgow Auntie and our friends Adam Murphy (who draws the Corpse Talk strip for The Phoenix and his comics colourist partner Lisa Murphy. (Great to see you guys!)

This weekend, the Reeve & McIntyre Roadshow hit the home of England's greatest playwright at Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival! (It's also where Shakespeare lived...)



Here I am, back in the blue wig and flight cap for Cakes in Space shenanigans with the festival's director Annie Ashworth and one of our top-level space cadets from Oxford University Press, Elaine McQuade.



These kinds of events are usually pleasant, but working together as a team on books with Reeve makes them loads of fun. We were pleased to see that while we were busy at the festival, The Guardian ran an article on co-author teams, with a good emphasis on illustration and comics:




And Reeve and I got a mention, hurrah! Thanks, Imogen Russell Williams!



Speaking of all things space-themed on May the Fourth (be with you), Philip's just written a blog on Star Wars and why it's been such a big influence on his work:



(And if you're looking for more good Star Wars reading material, check out these models cut from single sheets of paper.)

But back to Stratford Lit Fest! One of the best things about a festival is when we hear afterward how people in the audience have been inspired to go away and make their own drawings and stories. Philip and I led them in drawing Pilbeam the robot and a killer cake, and a girl named Erin went away and started her own Pilbeam-inspired comic! Yay! I hope she keeps going with it. (Thanks to @KathrynEMarsh for tweeting it.)



While we were in town, Philip could feel the bard looking down over not one, but both of his shoulders:



And he signed copies of the Uncorrected Proof edition of his new book, RAILHEAD, which is coming out about the same time this September as our Pugs of the Frozen North book.



One of the fun things about a festival is getting to meet other authors. (In fact, it's how I met Philip, at the Edinburgh book fest.) Here's Philip getting served his asparagus starter on a plank, with a bit of fake grass, next to Elaine and Professor David Crystal.



We got to meet David, his wife/manager Hilary and their actor/writer son Ben Crystal, who worked with his dad to create an Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary for young teenagers.



Other fab people we saw at the festival: Nick Butterworth! I love Nick's work and studied it quite a lot when I first started out. And funnily enough, he looks so much like his characters, including Percy the Park Keeper:



Here are Ashley Harrold and Philip swapping books in the Green Room:



Ashley, Steven Lenton and Tracey Corderoy all came to our Cakes in Space event (thanks so much!) but I didn't manage to snap a picture of Steve before he had to run and catch his train. But here's his fab co-author Tracey, with some of their charaters:



A quick hello with Chris Riddell:



And somehow I entirely missed seeing the marvelous Neill Cameron, but here's a photo tweeted by the festival. (Hope to catch you next time, Neill!!) He's come straight from taking part in the Phoenix Fest in Oxford, which sounded amazing. (Check out some of the tweets from that festival here!)



Big thanks to Annie and her team which made the festival run so smoothly! I hope lots of people went away inspired.

And I went back home to Stuart, and we spent a day in Kent visiting the bluebells and eating wild garlic. (Whiffy!)



I promise no bluebells were harmed in the making of this photo.

I used to think Dun Laoghaire in Ireland was pronounced 'dun leg hair', but in fact, you say it 'dun leery'. And that's where I went this weekend for Mountains to Sea Book Festival, along with a gorgeous gaggle of other writers, illustrators and book people, including this gang here: Oxford Story Museum's Tom Donegan, writer Judi Curtin, fellow space cadet and co-author Philip Reeve and writer Steve Cole:



But I'm so madly busy working on Pugs of the Frozen North right now (my upcoming book with Philip Reeve), that Philip kindly offered to do the blogging for me! So pop over to his blog for ALL OF THE NEWS:


***Keep reading Philip's blog here!***

Huge thanks to organiser and writer Sarah Webb for making everything go so smoothly! Also, big thanks to Oxfordshire Book Awards for making There's a Shark in the Bath your runner-up winner in the Picture Book category. Fab!



One more thing, journalist Fiona Noble in The Bookseller magazine just featured Pugs of the Frozen North as one of her top books to watch out for. Thanks, Fiona!

Look, we have a shiny new Nom-O-Tron to take to Ireland this weekend for our Cakes in Space event! My co-author Philip Reeve built it, using the blindingly amazing power of SCIENCE.



See you soon, Mountains to Sea festival! Here's the previous Nom-O-Tron, which was state-of-the-art when it came out. But it had synthesised so much space food that it was falling into disrepair and its software needed upgrading. (These scientific machines go obsolete so quickly! The bane of our existence.)


Photo by Steve Babb at the Manx Lit Fest

And I've been busy packing. It always takes me ages, I don't know why.

Leicester earthlings got a surprise last week when my co-author Philip Reeve and I teleported in with our Cakes in Space roadshow! We drew a picture of ourselves, in case we couldn't be seen because our costumes were so blindingly shiny:



We were thrilled to take part in Leicester Author Week, and this is the first time there that I've been able to do a double-act presentation. Which was a lot of fun! The Two Steves have been doing this double act thing for years, here we are with them (Steve Skidmore and Steve Barlow) and writer Andy Briggs, who all worked with their own groups of kids on the day. And we got to see a lot of kids! Over the two days, I got to work with over 800 Leicester school children on the city's innovative scheme, Whatever It Takes to get kids reading.

**Philip Reeve has blogged (magnificently) about our Cakes in Space day over on his website**, so pop over there for a read! (You can print out Cakes in Space drawing resources from my website.) I think one of my favourite things about the day was watching all these kids at the end of the session, rushing up to give Philip big hugs. I don't think he got hugged quite so much when he was doing his Mortal Engines talks. :)



So... JAMPIRES DAY! I spent quite awhile talking about my co-author on this picture book, the excellent David O'Connell, and drawing, of course.



A teacher took this photo with the kids from her class, who were very appropriately dressed in jammy red school jumpers.



The team that run Leicester Author Week is what makes it great; they manage to combine a warm, fun atmosphere with total professionalism. The equipment always works, the planning is very straightforward, and every kid gets a book at the end of the day. Big thanks to technician Mark Lambell, multi-lingual storyteller Jyoti Shanghavi and head organiser Kate Drurey (with jam pot).




We started with a big stage event and I read JAMPIRES to the kids and teachers, talked a bit about how I made it, took questions and we sang the Jampires song. Then we all moved over to the workshop tables, and I led them in drawing their own Jampires. (Hey look, there's Philip drawing a Jampire on the following day!)



We talked about how foods can inspire characters, which can, in turn inspire stories. So we all wrote down our favourite foods and came up with a character who's obsessed with that particular food. The kids helped me come up with Peter the Pizzapire. Then they drew their own, and we started creating a world for their character, a place where the story could happen. Check out Icy the Icecreampire....



...and Pommy the Popcornpire! I hope the kids were able to take away their characters and settings and turn them into full stories.



Another fun thing about Leicester Author Week is getting to see lovely colleagues. Here are lovely writers Bali Rai and John Dougherty. (John helped me last year in Leicester to come up with the tune for my There's a Shark in the Bath song, with lyrics by Philip Reeve! It's fun being able to work together.)



I mentioned to the kids that they can knit their own Jampire if they like, and the pattern's available, along with lots of other creative resources, on the fab website David O'Connell designed, jampires.com.



Since every kid gets a book, and there are over 800 kids, that means a LOT of book signing! Luckily I got to sign both sets of books the day before, so I didn't have to rush too much. Here are the boxes of JAMPIRES books that met me when I first got to the hotel. Quite late in the evening, I was joined by John Dougherty, who had only just flown in from the Emirates Lit Fest in Dubai! (I did that last year, going straight from Dubai to Leicester without time to drop off stuff at home. Stuart rescued me by coming with a fresh suitcase of clothes and I had a dramatic and chaotic repacking session in corner of Gatwick Airport. An elderly lady was sitting on a bench nearby, and shaking with laughter as my suitcase kept popping with tentacles, massive petticoats and pirate gear.) Despite his travels, John remembered to bring a full range of pen colours.



Our Leicester hotel was nice and quite quirky. Check out the unexplained portraits of 'Wills' in the restaurant. And the stairway that led to nowhere except a big porcelain dog, marked 'The Kennel'.



I don't usually get any time to explore Leicester, but this time my hotel was right near leafy New Walk, which gave me a whole different impression of the city.



I even popped quickly into the New Walk Museum, which is well worth visiting if you're in the area: cool Victorian paintings, dinosaur skeletons, mummies, and a collection of German Expressionist paintings and illustrations, among other things.



And we even got to join our Leicester friends Selina Lock and Jay Eales and Steve's wife Ali for a curry, hurrah! Huge thanks to the Leicester team, including Juliet Martin, Dan Routledge, Sandy Gibbons, Nicole Dishington (here with Andy Briggs) and everyone who made it happen! You can follow Whatever It Takes on Twitter as @LeicesterWiT.

The hardcover version of Cakes in Space has been out since last autumn, so my publishers are gearing up to release the paperback this summer. The pictures inside will be black and white instead of colour, but I got to work with Oxford University Press designer Jo Cameron to put together a new cover for it. Here it is!



I really like it. We debated for a long time if it would be better to have a black or blue background, but once I saw it all together with the blue, I decided Jo had made a good decision, nice and zingy. And I like the slightly retro Russian cosmonaut look of the colours and stars. Also, we're still getting exciting sightings of our poster in the London Underground! Here's one from ace book blogger Sister Spooky:



In other news, I've been interviewed by Edinburgh-based book blogger Julie Stirling and we talk about the #PicturesMeanBusiness campaign to get illustrators better recognised for their work. A lot of it's to do with mistakes in what's called 'meta data', and we're trying to learn more about it so we can fix the problem. You can read the interview here.

Stuart said, 'Why don't we have a Christmas card? Where's our Christmas card?' ...Well, here it is! I'm not sure how many I'll manage to send through the post, but at least we have a card! The Poglites from Cakes in Space are thrilled to be learning about Christmas because they get a part in the Alien Nativity.



I'm going to print a few off my printer - at least for my family - and I thought I'd share them with you, in case you wanted a Poglite Christmas card to give along with Cakes in Space (or just on its own).

Here you go, you can download a PDF here to print and cut out your own card!





Here's what's on the back: a killer Christmas pud and the part of Christmas that makes Poglites go all giddy, a blesséd SPOON. (Poglites value spoons more than anything in the world.)



Philip Reeve; and I have had reports of more exciting Cakes in Space tube sightings! From Mandii Pope at Bank and Andrew Coulson at Holborn stations. :)

So exciting, sightings of Cakes in Space posters are starting to happen in the London Underground! It's a good Christmas prezzie, so hopefully a few commuters, partygoers, weary travellers, panto-going families, etc will take notice. Here's one spotted by Sally-Anne Hickman:



It's like a childhood dream, these posters. Last years we had posters for Oliver and the Seawigs, and the very first one I saw was when my train stopped in front of it, and the carriage doors opened to reveal the poster perfectly framed in its doors. It was total magic. Here's another poster, snapped by Oxford University Press's Alesha Bonser in Piccadilly Circus station:



And news just in from Imogen Russell Williams and Susannah Northfield on Twitter: Cakes in Space is also listed in today's Metro 'Best Kid Books 5-8'! (Hopefully kids older than 8 - and adults! - will like it, too!)

CAKES IN SPACE landed in North Cornwall! And there was much merrymaking to be had with the Earthlings there, and CAKE.


Photo by Mike Bralowski


Such a fine location for the North Cornwall Book Festival, at Sue Harbour Robertson's house in Endellion, we rejoice to find Earthlings inhabiting such fine dwellings. Also, the abode contained the perfect materials to rebuild a perfect Nom-O-Tron machine, as the original had somehow been left behind on the mothership. (Thanks for your help, Sue!)


Photo by Sam

My co-pilot Philip Reeve and I discovered that our host, Sue, was also not entirely of this world, for we assembled ourselves for her very first SELFIE. With alien expert Moray Laing, editor of the Doctor Who Adventures magazine.



And what fine humans there were to be found after our landing! Unfortunately we did not get a photo of our wonderful co-host and writer Patrick Gale, or writer colleagues Matt Haig and Christopher William Hill. But I got to meet one of my children's book heroes, writer and illustrator Jill Murphy.



Jill's such a natural, convincing storyteller and her detailed pictures are warm and bring you right into the lives of the characters. I think my favourites of her books are Five Minutes' Peace and Peace at Last, both about weary parents.



Thanks so much to Patrick, Sue, the schools in the audience and everyone who made us feel so welcome!


Photo tweeted by @NCornBookFest

Travelling to Cornwall was also a good excuse to stop off at the Reeve Ranch, where Philip, photographer Sarah Reeve and I raced out for a couple quick hikes on Dartmoor.



Here is Philip doing a good Serious Author face. Also, he is branching out in his career to knitwear modelling, which is always a fine thing.



He laid the grave accusation upon me that I was not taking the walks entirely seriously.



One evening, Philip was on a songwriting roll and he and Sarah helped me come up with a couple more book-related songs. So a very useful trip. Thank you, lovely Reeves!



OTHER NEWS:
Zoe Toft at Playing by the Book has posted an interview for HAT WEEK(!) with one of the illustrators who most influenced me, Satoshi Kitamura. Go have a read!

And Scottish Book Trust have posted a encouraging response to our discussion about Co-Authorship. You can read it here, and I've added a bunch of links to the end of my blog post on the subject here.

When Stuart and I were visiting the Reeve house on Dartmoor, we spotted two Poglite visitors perched on top of the piano, gently waving about their tentacles:



And then the Reeves notices that all their spoons had disappeared, and I know for certain that these two occurences were linked. Poglites have never managed to develop their own spoon technology, and they are always on the prowl for these treasures.

And just today, Zoe Toft pointed out this article that would have interested the Poglites very much:



Philip and I particularly admired the spoon for disposing of horrific soups:



If you've been following Zoe's Playing by the Book blog, you will have seen that she and her family have already made forays into the world of spoon valuation:





Perhaps some day Reeve & McIntyre will write a Poglite song - and play the spoons! - but in the meantime, you can hear our first Cakes in Space song, as performed at Budleigh Salterton:




But Cakes in Space is not the only new space book, there's an amazing one coming out next week! Kids, adults, librarians, everyone, go get a copy of James Turner's STAR CAT.



James is possibly the funniest writer of comics on the planet, and you can't go wrong with this book. His humour works on many levels; from slapstick to breath-takingly absurd metaphysics. ...Oh, and the London launch party at Gosh is NEXT THURSDAY! Do go along if you can, and get James to sign and doodle in your book:



Besides Gosh comics, another great place to buy STAR CAT online is from The Phoenix Comic's own shop (where you can get lots of other great comics, too. Hmm. I notice it's not there yet, but it should be there next week, after the launch). Check out James's website and you can follow him on Twitter as @eruditebaboon. If you love STAR CAT, be sure to check out his earlier amazing book, Super Animal Adventure Squad... and subscribe to get a weekly dose of comics from The Phoenix Comic!

Speaking of comics, be sure to check out Neill Cameron's blog: he's been writing up a storm about how to get kids reading using comics. I back him 100%, this is something I really believe in.



Comics And Literacy, Part 1: Why Reading Comics Matters

Part 2: The (New) Golden Age of Children's Comics

Part 3: Things You Can Do

Follow him on Twitter as @neillcameron and keep an eye on the #ComicsAndLiteracy hash tag.

So Philip Reeve hijacked my previous blog post and turned it into a Manx Reeve & McIntyre pop quiz. But it wasn't exactly a comprehensive look at my visit to the Isle of Man for the Manx Lit Fest. The main reason I blog is so that I don't forget things, and Manx Lit Fest was so fabulous that I absolutely must go back and record it.



Writer Rakie Keig plunged me straight into a Manx cultural lesson when she drove me from the aiport to Douglas, where I would be staying for the weekend. We drove over the Fairy Bridge and she urged me to greet the fairies (as everyone does on the island, I learned from asking around). She also advised me never to say the word r-a-t, and subtitute the wod 'longtail' if I needed to say it. Her third tip was never to say I had come over from 'the mainland', but to call it 'the adjoining island'. Thanks for the tips, Rakie!



Douglas has a lovely long promenade along the beach, with a sort of faded grandeur that makes it easy to imagine the old days, when it was a prime seaside holiday destination. The Regency Hotel had lots of quirky old features, including a beautiful but tiny lift.




The lift had those sorts of grated gates you see on Russian lifts, and of course, I had to take a photo down the shaft. And then I imagined the pile of dropped camera phones at the base of it.



The lift became a major feature of my stay, and got tinier and tinier as my costumes grew larger.



My first event was a reception for the festival's sponsors, and one of the nice surprises was getting to meet a young author named Harri Sansostri. I meet a lot of kids who write, but I'd connected with Harri a year ago, when he was just beginning to try to promote his book on Twitter. He was sending the same promo tweet to everyone and I at first thought it was spam, but then realised his age, and we had a good conversation about promotion, which led to me writing this blog post for him. There was too much to say on Twitter, and I thought it might help Harri and other kids (possibly even adults!) who are trying to walk the fine line between promoting their books and being annoying. I'm sure I often go about it the wrong way, but Harri is proof that just getting out there and trying something, even if he got it wrong at first, can pay off in the end.



Harri's learned so much since then about using social media and his mother came up to me and thanked me for giving him that advice, and he tweeted me later to say how helpful it had been. (Which was good to hear; some people would just get angry if another person referred to their early tweets as spammy!)



I was so pleased to see he's ploughing forward with his books, having finished the second one and working on the third. Here's an update about it on his website, and it's great to think he's already being invited to a literary festival. He's also done quite a few school visits, which is very impressive!



Another person I met at the reception was teacher-turned-rap-battler, poet Mark Grist. The only things I knew about rap battles are from watching Eminem's film 8 Mile, but talking with Mark so intrigued me that I went to see his event later, which was undoubtedly the most entertaining poetry evening I've ever been to.



The actual rap battle videos are quite sweary (one of them has over 4 million views), but you can see a family-friendly version here, where Mark talks about taking rap battles into schools. The thing I loved most about his gig was the way he wove stories about his teaching experiences in between poetry recitations; it was great comedy.


http://markgrist.com/video.php

After the reception, my Oliver and the Seawigs and Cakes in Space co-author Philip Reeve and I hosted the annual Book Fanatics' Quiz Night (see the previous post). The next day was Schools Day, and I spent the morning with the kids at Marown Primary School.



I led an Oliver and the Seawigs session with Years 2-4 and we finished by drawing Sea Monkeys and singing the Sea Monkey sea shanty.



These cheeky Sea Monkeys made me laugh:



The youngest children, Reception and Year 1, had already been reading Jampires, so I was able to build on what they already knew. We started out by drawing Jampires (who love jam), but then I had them think of their favourite food, and invent a little critter that might be obsessed with it. We even did a little bit of world building, talking about their creatures' homeland, filled entirely with their favourite food, and we drew trees with the food hanging from them (sausages, chocolate, salmon, etc).



Besides the Jampires, it was fun seeing Pizzapires, Sausagepires, Chocopires...



And then I finished with the oldest kids, Years 5 & 6. I led them in a Comics Jam, which was quite intense.



It's always fun watching them at the end of the session, when their comic is returned to them, and they can see where other kids have taken their story.



This loo door made me laugh, but no, the Marown staff do not have visible horns! Huge thanks to the school's Literacy Coordinator Megan Udy, who organised my visit, and to Nicki McMullin, from festival sponsor Isle of Man Bank, who drove me to my events.



I did solo events in the morning, but I was glad to join up with Philip in the afternoon for a shorter visit Cronk-y-Berry School. (Isn't that a great name?).



In the evening, we had a Serious Literary Event in St Bridget's Chapel on the gorgeous Nunnery Estate, just outside of Douglas. (Here's Philip being all posey in the evening sunlight.)



We were joined in our event by novelist Sara Crowe, author of Bone Jack, and we talked on the subject of 'Creating a Lifelong Love of Words'. A lot of what I talked about was the importance of visuals in getting kids reading, their love of comics, and the importance of making books to inspire kids to love books. You can get an idea of what I talked about in an earlier blog post I wrote here, about setting up school comics festivals. Actually, we talked about A LOT, but you really had to be there. Come to one of our events sometime!



The next morning was Cakes in Space morning, and I assembled various bits of my costume on the hotel window ledge. Standard illustrator equipment, you see.



And then we went to Douglas' Family Library, where we were met by an eager crowd, and possibly our youngest ever!



We demonstrated the power of SCIENCE with the Nom-O-Tron:



Delighted everyone with the tuneful strains of our Cakes in Space song:



And presented awards for the best Cakes in Space-themed craft projects! Check out THIS HAT:



Utter genius, such a beautiful hat! It was created by the contest winner, a boy named David. Hurrah!



The hat was almost good enough to eat. (Stop that, Reeve!)



Oo, look, David also made a Cakes in Space Poglite! So fabulous!



We didn't get explanations for these drawings, but they looked pretty amazing.



And we also did a bit of drawing ourselves, on the day!



I led the group in drawing Pilbeam the robot, whose voice was so expertly reenacted by Philip.



Check out some of these great Pilbeams!



When we first started doing our Cakes in Space event, Philip and I were worried that drawing Pilbeam would be too complicated. But somehow, the step-by-step approach seems to work with even very young children. You can learn how to draw Pilbeam (as well as Astra and killer cakes) over on my website here.



One of the nice things about the book signing session after the event is getting to see people's drawings up close, and having little chats with everyone.



Big thanks, Family Library team, for a great morning! We were so pleased to see wonderful decorations everywhere, and the competition was a real bonus!



After a quick costume change, our next stop was Laxey Glen Gardens for the Roald Dahl Family Day, where we did an open air Oliver and the Seawigs event. And we got to hang out with fabulously funny writer Mark Lowery! If you haven't read his Socks are Not Enough, go read it now, it had me laughing and dying with embarrassment for its main character.



One of the cool things about the Isle of Man was just HOW many people had read Philip's books. Here's a Murderous Maths fanboy popping out from the trees, and so many people told him how his Mortal Engines books had a huge impact on them. Even Mark Grist said he walked into a lamppost reading the end of A Darkling Plain.



We were VERY lucky for sunny weather for the stage event, and we had to shout quite a lot to be heard, but we had a good audience and the dog on the stage slept peacefully throughout the show. Thanks to everyone who came along!



We were hoping to do a bit of sightseeing, and just before we left, festival Treasurer Pam Cope kindly drove us to Peel, for a look at its magnificent castle. I'd been to the Isle of Man for a wedding 13 years ago, and I'd forgotten an awful lot, but I knew Peel Castle would be worth revisiting. And gosh, it's pretty.



And so many interesting parts to explore! Hey, where has that Reeve gone off to?



Hmm, something's flitting through that bit of ruin there...



Let's zoom in. Ah, 'tis just a little Manx fairie.



Of course, in such a dramatic location, one must create dramatic album cover photos:



And I took a photo of a beautiful, rusty, old boat in Peel Harbour, for Ian McQue, who draws such things so well.



Festival photographer Steve Babb had us pose with the local Viking rope sculpture, and tweeted that we were arguing over our next book title.



Here's my photo of Steve! He was great fun and took so many terrific photos! Thanks, Steve!



Manx Lit Fest was a brilliant festival and I recommend it to any authors or visitors. So much to see and do! Huge thanks to the festival team (having a tiny breather in a Peel cafe): Festival Director John Quirke, Pam Cope, Jane Quirke and Technician Andrew Kniveton.

\

But that's not the whole team, there were SO many other people involved, driving, running events, baking, you name it. Here's volunteer Rakie Keig, the person who drove me from the airport:



Harri Sansostri with the excellent staff of Bridge Bookshop in Port Erin, who sold books at our events:



And one more photo of John Quirke, just because in the Mortal Engines books, 'Quirke' is a god, and that is undoubtedly why we got invited, ha ha... Thank you so much, John and team for a brilliant festival!

Traveling to rural Devon in full space costume must be the zenith of my career. Look at Spaceman Reeve, he's practically glowing with radiation.



Devon people, do not be alarmed if you look toward the end of your garden and see an other-worldly figure emerge.



He mostly comes in peace.



Invite him in to your home, for he is quite handy in the kitchen.



The Western Morning News printed a double-page spread to commemorate the spectacle.



Once we got used to the earth's gravity, we set off for Budleigh Salterton.


Photo by Sarah Reeve


And there we were, Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival! We demonstrated some of the gadgetry in our book, including the wonderous Nom-O-Tron, which can, from a simple protein formula, synthesise any sort of food you like.


Photo by Sarah Reeve

And I was pleased to find it produced a most excellent coffee walnut cake. (My favourite!)


Photo by Sarah Reeve

We always get people drawing at our events - everyone drew Pilbeam the robot with me - but this girl, Lauren Taylor, drew a whole comic strip in between the time we finished the show and the book signing session!



Check it out: killer cakes, robots, even little Reeve and McIntyre royalty! I like my victorious arm gesture at the end.



It's so fun getting people to draw Pilbeam. (Reeve does a great Pilbeam voice when we do one of the readings from Cakes in Space.)



I think people get a lot of confidence seeing that, if they take a drawing step by step, they can turn out something interesting on their paper. And I love how the drawings don't all look exactly like mine; they all have their own intriguing character.



Thanks so much to everyone who came along to see us and made drawings!



And big thanks to the organisers of Budleigh lit fest, we enjoyed our visit very much.


Photo by Sarah Reeve

And here's our production team, the most excellent Sarah Reeve and Stuart! Sarah did a great job bringing a killer cake on stage for us to examine in a Great-British-Bake-Off style, and Stuart worked the music (composed by Sarah Reeve). Thanks, team!



We even met one of the stars of the Save Budleigh Library documentary film and, when our event was finished, we stopped by the library for a peek. A nice lady with a zimmer frame insisted I wear her scarf for the photo.



I contributed a bit to the video, which you can see here. We do hope the government reconsiders closing this heart of the community and listens to local people who are throwing themselves into the campaign.



It was quite funny walking around Budleigh Salterton in cognito. We passed several people who had been at our event and they didn't recognise us at all without our space gear. Hey, check out the stone pictures on Budleigh beach! A masted ship, a panda, a bee, a Dalek, a whole pebble exhibition.



It's a beautiful place and I'd never been before; so glad to have had the chance.



Sarah's a professional portrait photographer and took lots of photos of us in her studio when we got back to the Reeve Ranch. They're great; I'll show those off soon! In the meantime, you can follow Budleigh lit fest on Twitter as @BudleighLitFest. And if you missed us this time, be sure to keep an eye on my Events Page if you want to catch us in action!

Some of my illustration in my new book with Philip Reeve, Cakes in Space, are quite complicated, so here's a breakdown of how I've made one of them. This scene shows a battle between a strange, black-spaghetti-like alien, astronaut Astra, Pilbeam the robot and a host of mutant killer cakes. (Such a traditional children's book scene, right? I love being able to dream up this stuff with Philip.)



Thumbnails: First I start by making rough 'thumbnail sketches' of possible scenes in the book. They're called thumbnails because they're tiny, just large enough to give our designer at Oxford University Press an idea of where things might go on the page, so she can figure out where the text could fit in. You can spot these two pages in the middle of the bottom row. (I drew lots of thumbnails all on one page together.)




'Who was your designer?', you may ask. Well, here she is, the lovely and talented Jo Cameron, on the left, in her wonderful colour-coordinated orange and black dress. The other two people are Liz Cross, our publisher (in the centre), and our editor, Clare Whitston, on the right (wearing the fascinators Jo made).



Back to work.... I added a bit of blackness on the stretched-out spaghetti alien to show Jo that I didn't want the text to go on its body. And she e-mailed it back like this, with text.



Pencil roughs: Then I made a more detailed version in pencil (called a 'pencil rough'). It's still scratchy and full of mistakes, but I have a much better idea of what's going to go on the page. (This is the version that a lot of reviewers saw, in the 'Uncorrected Proof Copy', a printed version of the book with only about half of my artwork completed.)



Going to INK: This is my favourite bit, the inking. I love it because I've already made the big stressful decisions about where everything will go, and I can have fun with the details and focus on making the line look nice. I dip an old-fashioned metal nib into India ink and trace over the pencil on a lightbox. I like doing it this way because I don't have to go back and erase the pencil, and risk smudging the ink.

A good tip, if you're drawing with a nib and India ink: the ink clogs the nib very quickly, so have a little jar of water nearby. Every few minutes, you can dip the nib into the water and wipe off the extra ink and water on a cloth or some kitchen roll. If you let the ink dry on the nib, you'll need to boil the kettle and swish the nib around in your teacup with a toothpick, until the ink comes off.



This is a different page, but it's a closeup of me inking some of the mutant cakes. They were super-fun to draw! I didn't use expensive paper, just cheap drawing cartridge. If the paper was too thick, I wouldn't have been able to see through it clearly enough to trace.



And here's what the page looks like, all inked up. (Feel free to try colouring it yourself, if you like.)



Next, I scanned the inked page into my computer.

Scanning breakdown: For this one, I scanned it in 'Bitmap', which is total black and white, no gray areas. That makes it very, very clean. And I think I scanned it at 1200 dots per inch, which is probably a higher resolution than I needed (600 dpi would have been fine), but I wanted to make sure I didn't lose any line quality. I then opened it in Photoshop, converted it to Grayscale and shrunk it down to 600 dpi, so it wouldn't be so big that it would crash my computer.

I don't have a photo of myself, working on exactly that page, but here I am with my laptop and the Wacom mouse pen that I use for colouring. (Note the scarf: it was the dead of winter and very cold!)



Here's a coloured-up version! When I coloured the previous book, Oliver and the Seawigs, I only let myself use blue and light blue. And in this book, I tried to stick to just orange, but I struggled with that; light orange isn't orange anymore, it's peach. I didn't want a whole book full of peach colour, it might look like some horrible old bathroom. So I also used gray in this book, and then added a few extra colours just for the human skin tones, so Astra's mum could have a rich chocolatey-colour skin, and Astra could be a little bit darker than peach.

Limited palette: Even though the book was printed using a full-colour technique (so I could have had ALL the colours of the rainbow!), I was still very strict with myself about keeping a very limited colour palette. I just like the look of limited colours, and that decision gives the artwork a slight retro feel, like space stories from the Sixties. Philip and I liked that era's positive spin on things, how people were still optimistic about building new worlds and new societies, and we wanted to capture that feeling.



Adding texture: I was looking at that coloured scene and I thought, Hmm, this is a big cakey, crumbly battle... it still looks too tidy. So I added texture. I had already scanned in a bit of texture for some of the cakes, but the splotchy background texture comes from a big piece of watercolour paper with stains all over it that I made with over-brewed tea. After the tea had dried, I scanned in the sheet (full colour, I think, so I could use it with other things), turned it gray in Photoshop, then added it to the digital image, as a layer all over everything.

That's the thing about digital artwork, I always have to make sure it doesn't look bland because everything's a bit too tidy and clean, so I'm constantly scanning in handmade textures. People ask me if I draw by hand or work digitally, and you can see that it's really a mixture of both.



Here's a little peek at the rest of the book, and I've included several How-to-draw Activity sheets on the Cakes in Space page on my website, so do go over and have a look!

Yesterday morning we had our Cakes in Space launch! And there were cake hats! Cakes with eyes! Cakes that were ALIVE....


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

The previous day, my co-author Philip Reeve and I had signed stock for indie bookshops and prepared for the next day's event, but we had no idea what sorts of life forms we'd encounter.



In the morning, my trusty companion, Stuart, and I travelled light years to Marylebone High Street to the space station that is Daunt Books.



And we were met by cakes! Cakes with eyes!


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com


These fearsome creatures were carefully herded by cake wranglers from Oxford University Press, including Cecily, Camille Davis and Hattie Bayly.



Sweet wheat-based morsels clamped on to people's heads and wouldn't get off!



But somehow, these people took it in their stride...



...They couldn't seem to understand their peril.



In fact - shock horror - some of the visitors even ENCOURAGED the cakes in their ferocious tendencies.



I sensed these cakes had undue influence on their hosts.


Photo by Deadly Knitshade - whodunnknit.com

Fearless scientists that we are, Reeve and I took to the podium to investigate these strange happenings.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

Philip demonstrated the wonder of SCIENCE, how in the future in Cakes in Space, people can insert protein sachets into the marvellous NOM-O_TRON and produce the most excellent food you can imagine. In Philip's case, it was a chocolate biscuit.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

Of course, I had to jump in and try out this science of the future.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

I could envision MUCH more awesome treats than Philip, so I'd be sure to get something at least a hundred times better.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

But what was this? A carrot?!! ...Science is not all it's cracked up to be.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

This little girl was seriously skeptical. I expect she'll grow up and become the sort of scientist who relies on things like DATA and EVIDENCE, which is rather an odd concept.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

But those cakes were still lurking, so we delved into our carefully researched report and read out useful passages to the audience, warning them about their impending doom.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

Now, I ought not to give away all the secrets of our research, but I can allude to a strange occurrence during the event, brought on by Visitors from Elsewhere, which left Philip struck to the heart with tragic loss. ...A moment of silence, please.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

To deal with these dangers in the future, we need TECHNOLOGY, mostly in the form of robots who look rather friendly. I drew a diagram of a Cakes in Space-featured robot named Pilbeam. And so that the schematics of this fine robot would not be forgotten by future generations, I had everyone draw Pilbeam along with me, implanting the robot's makeup directly into their brains.



And the implantation was successful, each diagram slightly altered so that the memory could not be wiped out by a single virus. (Clever, yes?)


Pictures by @LAWsomeTweets and Katie on Martin Hand's Flickr page

To lighten this dark, prophetic mood, Philip and I sang a ballad from the future, dating to just the time before everyone gets artsy-fartsy and starts singing only in binary.



What wonderous things these humans have wrought!



We practiced our Battle Cry of the Future, in case our defensive technology is not enough to ward off the killer cakes.



And still the cakes lurked, preferring the cranial regions.



Don't be deluded by their enticing appearance...



...these cakes have issues.


Photo by Rebecca Portsmouth - rebeccalouise.com

Despite the gloom and doom of the presentation, the front window display at Daunt Books Marylebone looked quite jolly. We suspect they may be in collusion with the killer cakes.



After our signing, Philip and I traveled with Norwegian starship captain Karoline Bakken to another satellite of Daunt.



Despite its rather old-fashioned facade, Daunt Books Highgate IS the future and houses a time machine in its basement.



The staff let us inscribe coded warnings for future generations in their Cakes in Space books but pretended not to know what we were talking about when we asked them about the time machine. So we left them, vowing to return when their secret could be revealed.



As we traveled, Captain Bakken lavished unwarranted affection on our captured cake. Being nice to cakes doesn't help anything, you ought to know. Eat the cake before it eats you, that's our motto.



Next stop: Daunt Books Holland Park.



But what is this? My co-pilot decided to go undercover, to wear CIVVIES, while I remained still properly clad in my fighting uniform. Obviously this is a sign of some overarching PLAN we have, but I can't tell you about it or I'll have to kill you.



Be aware. Be vigilant. Run to your nearest bookshop and snatch up a copy of Cakes in Space so that you, too, can be prepared for alien cake attack. You NEVER KNOW when they might strike. I will leave you with our public service broadcast:

This year Edinburgh Book Festival was OUT OF THIS WORLD!



My literary co-pilot Philip Reeve and I had been putting together a Cakes in Space stage show and this was our first full-on performance. (Since Reeve lives on Dartmoor and I'm in London, we only had one other chance to practice, at Nine Worlds a couple weeks before Edinburgh.) And just as we were leaving for Scotland, this fabulous animated Cakes in Space trailer popped up, made by Ed Beck & David Mead from MB Films:



Our book features a spaceship food machine called the NOM-O-TRON, so we brought along a smaller, portable version:



And I showed everyone how to draw Pilbeam the robot and a killer cake! Here's one of the drawings, tweeted in by @Lorna_May_D:



I still can't quite get over seeing Reeve in streaky blue hair and lipstick.



And we even got our portraits shot by festival photographer Chris Close. We were the only authors he took into his special anti-gravity booth. Thanks, Chris!





When Stuart and I first arrived at the book festival, I raced around looking at all the other photos... and spotted some friendly faces! Here's Philip Ardagh (who works with Axel Sheffler on his The Grunts books; Axel draws Julia Donaldson's Gruffalo - that's the link to the little chappie on his shoulder - and Babette Cole, with characters from her new James Rabbit and the Giggleberries book.



And while I was there, Babette drew me a birthday picture! Thank you, Babette! :D She made sure I paid special attention to the space pants.



I did quite a lot of costume changes, and Stuart was wonderful about helping me with them, even if he thought I was slightly nuts.



On the Thursday, I had a full day of Outreach Events in Fife. The festival organises these so schools and libraries outside of central Edinburgh can still take part in the festival. Here I am in the festival Yurt, very early in the morning, practicing my There's a Shark in the Bath song. I first sang it at the Hay Festival and I was super-nervous, but I'm a bit more confident about it now.



I took those sharks to Kirkcaldy West Primary School. They were great fun, that lot! And we even got our pictures in the local paper. (Thanks for tweeting that, Damon Herd!)



My assistants and I got to have lunch at the beautiful new Kirkcaldy Galleries:



The Schools Outreach is very strict about not taking photos in the schools, so I only got one. But it's of the excellent team who took me around on the day: Outreach coordinators Sarah Bingham, Grainne Crawford and Rona Neilson and a tag-along Jampire. Thanks so much, team!



One of the challenges of Edinburgh Book Fest is trying to do a few other things outside the book festival. But this time Stuart and I made a point of going to see our friend Emma Vieceli acting at The Fringe festival, in a play called Parade. She did a great job! Emma now makes comics, but she started out as a children's telly presenter and she's recorded music, and it's fun seeing her go back to her roots.



Ah, here's Emma (second from right)! Together with comics people Hannah Berry, Pat Mills and their partners:



On the way to Emma's play, Stuart spotted my Summer Reading Challenge banner in the front window of the new Edinburgh Central Children's Library, together with two of Philip Reeve's three GOBLINS books. Cool!



Another fun thing about Edinburgh is going out for publisher dinners and meet other authors who are published by the same team. Here's Philip, our excellent Oxford University Press publicist Keo Baxendine (who did a lot of our planning) and another of their writers, Wendy Meddour, whose 12-year-old daughter illustrates their Wendy Quill books. (Or maybe her daughter's older now, but still, pretty amazing.)



And hanging out in the Authors Yurt is fun, too. Everyone's sort of equal in there, so you can talk with anyone (and grab cake and whisky and other nice treats and meals). Look, it's Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman! While we were there, Malorie did an interview with a Sky reporter, quite rightly calling for more diversity in children's books, and got stuck with a very bad headline, which caused massive internet outrage, and quite a lot of abuse, too. But Malorie stuck by her guns, and all our colleagues rallied around her, and the whole thing made it much more clear just why we need more diversity in books. Not in a tick-the-box sort of way, but in a way that lots of different kinds of people can find other people like themselves in books. Patrick Ness talked on Twitter about how he couldn't find any books about gay people in his school library, and there aren't that many UK children's books with black people as the main characters. Here's Malorie's initial Sky interview, and a Guardian article about her response.



Here's Malorie's Summer Reading Challenge video:



More exciting encounters: it's Di Cameron from Oxford's Story Museum, comics artist Adam Murphy in The Phoenix Comic), comics colourist Lisa Murphy, Cameron Jr and comics artist Neill Cameron! Adam and Neill both have new books out with The Phoenix Comic and David Ficking books, compilations of their Phoenix work: Corpse Talk by Adam and How to Make Awesome Comics by Neill. Lisa did quite a lot of the colouring for Adam, and has also coloured for my studio mate Gary Northfield (Gary's Garden) when he was pressed for time.



Philip and I were hugely flattered that Geraldine McCaughrean came to our event! Geraldine's been a big influence on Philip, and her book The White Darkness is one of my all-time faves. Geraldine's on Twitter now: you can follow her: @GMcCaughrean.



Philip and I did two Cakes in Space events, one for schools and one for the general public. During the schools event, festival sketcher Morag Edward drew us! She did a great job, but I don't think we made it easy for her: "You moved around a lot!"



COSTUME CHANGE!



Ha ha, I got this week at Afflecks Palace in Manchester during an earlier festival, and I love the name of it: Skyscraper Blond.



Head of Marketing and Publicity Elaine McQuade from Oxford University Press came with Philip and me to Wester Hailes Library to do another Outreach event, this time featuring Oliver and the Seawigs. I'm really getting into this wig thing. My bird thought Elaine was rather splendid and cuddled up. One of the librarians had a phobia of feathers, so I had to put away my fluffy fan.



We had a great time at Wester Hailes, drawing Sea Monkeys with everyone and singing the EEP song, but I didn't get any photos. Our next stop was Leith Library, where we were helping them with their Summer Reading Challenge final medal ceremony. First I sang an opera aria...


Photo by Jeff Holmes

(No, not really.) If you've been following my blog, you'll have seen that MYTHICAL MAZE theme of this year's Summer Reading Challenge has been a big part of my lasts few months. I got to be the official illustrator, and when I first took on the job, I met with kids at Leith Library and got their ideas and feedback on some of the characters. So it was great coming full circle and hearing how they'd enjoyed the challenge, and congratulating them for reading their six books.


Photo by Jeff Holmes

We tried to slide the medals on gracefully and not get them stuck on anyone's ears. It's a tricky task.


Photo by Jeff Holmes

Philip and I read a bit from our Oliver and the Seawigs, the myth we've created, and I talked with the kids a bit about myth making. There's no way to say your characters will be remembered thousands of years from now, like Medusa or the Minotaur, but if you do your best, you never know!


Photo by Jeff Holmes

I led everyone in drawing Medusa, Edinburgh City Libraries' Simon Radcliffe said a few words, and our sponsor, Tesco Bank, took a big Summer Reading Challenge group photo.


Photo by Jeff Holmes

One of the fun things about this summer is the way so many kids and librarians have dressed up in mythical creature costumes, and the photographers took us outside for a few more cosplay shots:


Photo by Jeff Holmes

Whee! Thank you, Edinburgh! A huge thanks to the festival's Children & Education Programme Director Janet Smyth, and you can follow the festival on Twitter: @EdBookFest and see some other things that happened on the #EdBookFest hash tag.


Photo by Jeff Holmes

As much as I love book festivals, I find them exhausting, and I was very grateful that I didn't have to go straight back to the drawing desk (despite impending deadlines). Stuart and I took a couple more days to visit Glasgow Auntie, and she looked after us wonderfully. Here she is, having an intimate moment with a Jampire.



Glasgow Auntie took us to beautiful Troon. I had no idea Troon had such an amazing beach.



But jellyfish... JELLYFISH! We were glad we weren't swimming. Check out this alien creature that had washed up:



One last shot with lovely Stuart in the Troon sun.



Bye bye, Scotland, but just for now! If you're further south and still want to see our Cakes in Space performance, there are still a few spaces left for our Saturday morning family-friendly launch at Daunt Books Marylebone, central London on 13 Sept at 10:30am. Book your free ticket now! (You can come with kids or without, in space costume or not, it's up to you!) :)

Hurrah! You're all invited to celebrate the blast-off of my new book with Philip Reeve,
CAKES IN SPACE!!!



Sept 13th: We having a Saturday morning family-friendly celebration at central London's gorgeous Daunt Books Marylebone, where you'll get to hear the Cakes in Space song, see the highly scientific Nom-O-Tron in action, and learn how to draw a robot! Bring your kids or come by yourself, dress up in space gear or come just as you are, it'll all be good fun. But do be sure to book your place, either by e-mailing Daunt Books at [email protected] or calling them at 020 7224 2295. Here's the Cakes in Space Facebook party page, if you want to let us know if you're coming (but you'll still need to contact Daunt Books).



Now for a little peek at Cakes in Space, to whet your appetite. The book starts with Astra and her family, who are travelling to the far-off planet of Nova Mundi. It's going to take 199 years to get there, and Astra's understandably a bit nervous! But her parents reassure her that they'll all be sleeping in freezer pods, and will wake up when they arrive, as though the trip were only a single night. (Philip and I thought that there aren't enough cryonics in children's books.)



Here you can see an advert for marvellous Nova Mundi.



Astra and her family must first take a shuttle...



... and at last arrive at the mothership.



You may think I was drawing tech the whole time in this book, but you'll find some leafy scenes when Astra and her robot friend, Pilbeam, discover the ship's herbarium.



Astra shouldn't even be awake, but things on the ship have gone very wrong after she tampered with the food machine. Oh look, some aliens!



And that malfunctioning food machine - the Nom-O-Tron? Well, I just have two words for you... KILLER CAKES. Get ready for the CAKES IN SPACE. And yes, the book does contain a high-power spork battle.



See you at the party! If you can't come to that, have a peek at my Events Page, where you can see if Philip and I might be coming to your area and can sign and doodle in your book.

When Oxford University Press publicists asked last year if Philip Reeve and I had any Cakes in Space-themed photos to use for book fair publicity, this was the best we could get together at the time:



But we knew we wouldn't be able to draw outfits onto ourselves for stage events. (Actually, that would be very cool; possibly for another book.) And dressing up in space costumes is... just plain fabulous, so we set about designing something for ourselves. First, I needed a hat! Of course. There's this line in Cakes in Space, when space voyager Astra first meets a killer cake:

The top of the cake flipped open like a pedal-bin lid, revealing a wide mouth and lots of shiny teeth.

...And that seemed a good template for an INTERESTING piece of headgear.



My sculptor friend Eddie Smith offered to help me with the mechanics of it, and he's generally just good at this sort of thing. (He built the structure for my Giant Seawig. Read about that in an earlier blog post.) So here's Eddie, with a rough prototype, made from cardboard, tubing, a turkey-baster squeezeball, and cork and a bit of folded inner tube. Fill the inner tube with air and it tries to straighten; the mouth opens.



Ha ha, here's the more finished version, in action!




Those plastic balls they sell at the pound shop make great eyeballs. I did a test one, to see if it would take the Posca paint pens. Eddie's great to work with, he can solve any problem, and he's just set up a new Facebook page for his 3D art. Do do pop over, have a look, and give him a 'like'!



Now for the rest of the costumes! I can sew a little bit, but I need to take my machine in for reconditioning and I don't have a lot of time, with all the book work and events I've been doing. One day I was in the studio and someone popped by to collect some post that had been delivered, or use my printer or something, and we got talking; she said she designed costumes. A-ha!, I thought. That person was Wendy Benstead, and she has a whole amazing tailor workshop on the top floor of our building. I showed her these drawings I'd made of possible costumes, and she said she could do them!



Here's Wendy with her Head Maker, Heather Coad. (They don't always wear matching outfits.) They do a lot of bridal work, but Wendy's training is in corsetry, and Heather loves cosplay, so they were chuffed to get a more eccentric costume commission.



To help keep costs down, I went out myself to find the materials, to the shops on Goldhawk Road. The silver quilting for Philip's suit was easy to find, but the turquoise proved more difficult. And I steered clear of the lighter blue because I was really worried about looking like a mattress. I got most of the fabrics on that road, but ended up sending away to Germany for the turquoise quilting. (I could have quilted some other fabric myself, but again... time.)



The first thing Wendy did was make what's called a toile, a rough cotton version of the outfit, just to get the pattern worked out. The toile wasn't terribly flattering, but Wendy reassured me that this was normal. It was much more fun when I visited the studio and saw some actual glittery material peeking out...



Here's some of my space dress, still in pieces:



Philip and I went for a couple fittings when he was in town for conferences and such. His suit was loosely based on some we'd seen in the catalogue for the Davie Bowie exhibition at the V&A Museum. Wendy played around with the tubing on my dress; we wanted to get a sort of retro Jetsons look.



I was a bit worried with my cone-shaped skirt, that if I stood up on stage, the audience would be able to see right up my dress. So I found this big-mama petticoat on Ebay, again from Germany. It had a distinct pong of being stored too long in a wet basement when it arrived, but I gave it a good wash and it was fine. Gosh, is it fluffy.



I thought I was going to shape my own wig, using these foam doughnut things, but I couldn't get that hair to do ANYTHING. I wanted it to look sleek and it stayed resolutely messy.



I gave up on the blue hair, but it looked great as a mermaid hairdo for our Manchester Seawigs Parade. Instead, I found some clip-on buns in one of the African hair shops near Peckham Rye station which worked much better. It's sort of a Princess Leia look... PRINCESS LEIA CAKE.



Months earlier, Philip had found some fab space specs in Camden Market while we were there with his family. (I think his son, Sam, actually bought them, and Philip convinced Sam to let him borrow them.)



I wanted to paint my backup pair of glasses white, but I was scared of ruining the finish on them; Eddie recommended painting them first with PVA glue. I tried it on an ugly old pair first, and the glue and paint peeled off easily. And then I got a sheet of some glittery mirror stuff from 4D Model Shop in Shadwell and cut it into a necklace shape. Not bad! We looked like something out of a some British 1970s Sci-fi film, the kind that had slightly cheap sets, but it didn't matter. SUCCESS!



My boots were easy to find on Ebay, but we had a hard time finding glam turquoise boots for Philip. They don't really exist in Internet land. So we settled with white boots from Demonia, which do the job just fine.



And then we were ready... WE CAN SPARKLE! Greetings, earthlings!


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

Huge thanks to Wendy, Heather and Eddie for all your help with the costumes! And to Stuart, for putting up with me parading around the house looking weird and asking his opinion on things such as blue hair. He looked super-impressed when I put on the whole costume, and that was a fun moment. Again, do check out Eddie's Facebook page, and you can follow Wendy Benstead on Twitter as @CostumesByWendy. You can also read an interview with her and see more photos in Guise magazine here.


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

Cakes in Space launches at the beginning of September with Oxford University Press.

Since my co-author Philip Reeve and I COME FROM THE FUTURE... we can see into the future, all the way to September, when our mothership Oxford University Press will be launching our new book together...
CAKES IN SPACE!


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

Until Tuesday, no one had seen anything printed except the orange uncorrected proof copies, which were only half illustrated, with pencil roughs in the second half. But just before our press pre-launch party, a few copies of the final version arrived in Oxford, and the team brought them for us to look. Super exciting!!


Photos by Michael Thorn, Achuka

I can honestly say Philip and I are both thrilled with how it came out! It's printed on lovely paper and just like Oliver and the Seawigs, is such a nice thing to hold. Here it is, being displayed by Julia Harrison from Daunt Books Marylebone, who will be hosting our Publication Day launch party in September. (I hope you can come!)


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

These front endpapers weren't in the earlier proof copy! Here's a peek at the planet Astra and her family are setting off on their voyage to colonise, until something goes terribly wrong with the Nom-o-Tron food machine.


Photos by the Nova Mundi Tourism Board

Oliver and the Seawigs had a blue colour theme, and this one's orange. And did the editorial team come dressed to theme... oh yes!


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka


Check out these great fascinators, made by our super-talented designer, Jo Cameron!



And Jo somehow managed to find this perfect retro dress in Cakes in Space colours! Here she is with our Oxford University Press publisher Liz Cross and our editor Clare Whitston. I love working with these people; they've given us so much creative freedom but at the same time, being right there with timely help whenever we need it. (The fabulous Elaine McQuade should also be in that group but she's taking the photo.)



And here's our wonderful publicity team! The two on either end are the freelance publicists, Liz Scott and Philippa Perry, who led us around earlier in the day on the amazing Operation CAKE DROP. And from OUP, from left: Harriet Bayly, Charlotte Armstrong, Alesha Bonser and Keo Baxendine.



We held the party at BB Bakery, between London's Covent Garden and the Strand, and it was perfect; I've often walked by (and yes, Instagrammed) the amazing cakes in the window. They look like the most fabulous hats you could imagine.



And gosh, they made a good cup of tea!



David Maybury and Hayley Campbell seem to approve. ...Wait, that is not tea! I don't know what was in there, but it was very potent and super tasty. Photo of mystery cocktail tweeted by one of our favourite bloggers, Sister Spooky.


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka; photo on right by Laura Heath/@sisterspooky

OUP had invited booksellers, librarians and media people, and Liz Scott introduced them to the book and talked a bit about what it was like to work together.


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

Here's OUP's Elaine McQuade, Philip's agent Philippa Milnes-Smith, and Cheltenham lit fest organiser Jane Churchill. I somehow didn't manage to get a photo of my agent, Jodie Hodges, but she's always such a massive help to me.



Then Philip and I sang our NEW SONG! It was a bit rough as it was our first-ever performance, but we had fun with it and it got some laffs... possibly because of all the people looking in from the street, wondering what on earth was going on in there.


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

Also, I should point out that Philip was wearing BLUE LIPSTICK. This is a very different Reeve from the tweedy fellow we know so well. Oh, and David Maybury's not one to miss out on getting painted.


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

Nice photo-bombing, Maybury & Campbell...



Ha ha, here's a link to a lipsticking video David shot:



Huge thanks to photographer Michael Thorn, who took such great shots during the evening. You can check out the whole gallery of photos over here on his Achuka website. Do have a look, they're lovely! Michael also runs a great blog about children's books, and you can follow him on Twitter: @achuka. Here he is, a rose between two unicorns.



A peek at the crowd... oo, I love Kirsten Grant's multicoloured dress.


Photo by Michael Thorn, Achuka

Speaking of costumes, I'm planning to do another blog post about them specifically, but the dress, gauntlets and suit were made to our sketches by Wendy Benstead and her team (who work upstairs in my studio building). And my sculptor friend Eddie Smith helped me make the hat. (Eddie's the guy who built the Giant cling-film Seawig with me for the Golden Hinde pre-launch party.) He figured out how to make the mouth open and close! You can see it if you click on David Maybury's vine video:



And no party would be complete without my excellent studio mates. There they are on the right, Fleece Station space cadets Elissa Elwick, Lauren O'Farrell and Gary Northfield.


Photos by Lauren O'Farrell

We're an excitable lot.


Photos by Lauren O'Farrell

Hope to see you at Daunt Books in September for the Cakes in Space Publication Day party! In the meantime, here's a list of events on my website if you want to see if I'm flying in my jetpack to your area anytime soon.

GREETINGS FROM THE FUTURE! THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT...
THE FUTURE IS CAKE.



On Monday, my Cakes in Space co-author Philip Reeve and I embarked on a barking mad mission to CAKE all our publicists' friends in their media fortresses. And we did it in space suits! Seeing Philip in a space suit cracks me up so much, particularly after he sent me this clip of David the android in the film Prometheus:



...Is that Reeve or what??! Anyway, Philip couldn't actually be there for the first part of the day, since he'd been away from Dartmoor in Manchester for a few days already (for our Grand Seawigs Parade). But publicist Philippa Perry and I had loads of fun running around delivering alien cupcakes, starting with The Telegraph. (Martin Chilton, you are CAKED!)



Then the BBC... CAKED! (Ha ha, the little cake has a pass.)





See all the crowds trying to get a glimpse of the famous killer cake. ...No, not really, they were there to see Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer, but it was pretty funny watching them go absolutely mad when the guys came out the door.



Press Association... CAKED!



The Guardian... CAKED!



Ah, and here's Reeve, just beamed in, along with publicist Liz Scott...



The Times... CAKED!



The Bookseller and We Love This Book magazines... CAKED!



Tom Tivnan was hiding in the back of the office but we managed to cake him all the same.



And then we went on to our Cakes in Space media pre-launch party! More about that soon... Oxford University Press launches Cakes in Space at the beginning of September and we're hugely excited. (Well, I'm excited. Androids only simulate emotion, but Philip's very convincing.)

I wasn't able to go to the Bologna Children's Book Fair this year, but news is still coming in! Mark A. Chambers tweeted this picture of the Oxford University Press stand, with its big Cakes in Space poster:



And my agent, Jodie Hodges, spotted this napkin still hanging on the wall at Da Silvio, the restaurant we went to last year during our visit! (Here's a close-up of the napkin; that was a good night.)



A couple more peeks at Cakes in Space, my upcoming book with Philip Reeve. It's all set in space, so you think there wouldn't be much reason to draw plants, but Pilbeam the robot shows the girl Astra that the ship has a herbarium. So I got to draw cool growing things and robotic insects.



The look of this page is very influenced by medieval manuscript illumination and paintings. Which was great fun, mixing it into this futuristic context.



(Read more about the Bologna Children's Book Fair in an earlier post.) A couple more fun peeks from Twitter:

If you work in children's books, you'll know that everyone's gearing up like mad for the Bologna Children's Book Fair: designers are shrieking and running about with cut-up bits of paper (ARGHHH!!!!); rights people are trying to find little pockets of calm to make phone calls to Canada, Korea (SHHHH!!); Bologna cafe owners are making up extra buckets of gelato (Bene, bene!). And I've been - very quietly (eep eep!)- making up some samples for the Oxford University Press stand:



Remember those great Seawigs bags we had last year? This year they're going to be orange, and feature cakes, aliens and robots.



Here's another little peek:



'So what is the Bologna Children's Book Fair?' you ask. It's an exhibition centre in Italy with enormous halls - like airplane hangars - where publishers display their books, many of which haven't launched yet. And their agents work like mad to sell the rights of the books to other countries, to be published in other languages. (These are called 'co-editions'.) Britain's a small country, so if you sell a book well in Britain, that's great, but if the book can be selling in 15 different languages, there's a chance you might actually make a living from it! My co-author Philip Reeve and I went to Bologna last year with our publisher, it's an amazing place. OUP let us draw all over the stall, and I always love the chance to peek at foreign editions, particularly the French language picture books; they often have such interesting design and quirky illustrations that expect quite a lot of advanced abstract thought from their readers.



If you want to catch a bit of Bologna action, you can follow the hashtag #BCBF14. (I think this is the first year they've actually managed to pull together an organised hashtag for English language tweets. Past year's it's been Twitter chaos.)

One of the exciting things has been seeing the Uncorrected Proof copy of Cakes in Space arrive in the post! This is a work-in-progress version, with about half the illustrations finished, and the other half as pencil sketches.



This very limited edition will be missing a bunch of fun stuff like the author pages and endpapers. Last year I'd finished all but the last chapter, and this year I was feeling a bit bad that I'd only managed half this time. But I talked about it with some people, and actually, I think this way might be better: last year people thought they basically had the finished book, and they were surprised when much later they saw the final version, how much more interesting stuff it had in it. This one doesn't pretend to be finished, but it still gives an early reader a very good idea of what's in store.



I've completed all the artwork now and we're working on final edits. I couldn't go to the Emirates lit fest until I'd finished, and that meant I had to put in some very long hours. It really was quite gruelling, and half of me felt terrible about it, because I wasn't giving my friends and family any time, and leaving stacks of e-mails unanswered. But another part of me loved the excuse to switch off from everything but drawing, and really focus on making great pictures. And then I'd feel a bit guilty for enjoying it so much when everyone was annoyed at me for letting them down in so many different ways. So yes, some tears and pleading were involved. I think this is the hardest thing about my job right now, always feeling like I'm letting down so many people all the time. I get quite depressed about it. ...That is why I need my fleet of McIntyre Clones.



...Heh heh, I love this Zen teacake here, he looks like such a calm little dude in the midst of cakey chaos.

Cakes in Space launches in the UK this September, and fingers crossed that it does well in Bologna. Oliver and the Seawigs did VERY well - 14 foreign co-editions sold - so this year I'm optimistic.