Sarah McIntyre

For the next part of our Adventuremice Southwest Tour, my co-author Philip Reeve and I drove down to Kingsbridge in South Devon (near Totnes), where we'd been commissioned to paint an Adventuremice-themed window for The Harbour Bookshop. (Here's a link if you're interested in the bookshop's connection to Christopher Robin Milne, of Winnie-the-Pooh fame!)



Philip and I hadn't painted a window for ages (not since the Kevin window for Waterstones Covent Garden way back in 2018). My Posca pens had dried out and I'd binned them before Stuart and I moved to Devon. So Philip and I got some new pens and set to work afresh!



And here's the final window, we were pretty pleased with how it turned out! Booksellers Jane and Louise said they'd leave it up until Christmas, so if you're at all in the area, do pop by to see it (and get a signed and doodled copy of Adventuremice: Otter Chaos)!



( Collapse )

The past couple days were a whirlwind of Adventuremice: Otter Chaos in London. Huge thanks to our publicists at David Fickling Books, Fraser Hutchinson and Liz Scott for arranging everything for us! Other than our big launch event at Daunt Books Marylebone, I think my favourite stop was Waterstones Piccadlly (Europe's largest bookshop, with over 8 miles of bookshelves!), where Lucy the bookseller let us draw a big mouse ship on one of the columns in the children's section.



Check it out, it's right under a fab drawing by Liz Pichon! I started out small with drawing Pedro, but then I realised we had the right pens and that I could really go for it, so I added the big ship.



( Collapse )

Yesterday my co-author Philip Reeve and I had our London launch for the first book in our new series - Adventuremice: Otter Chaos - at gorgeous Daunt Books in Marylebone. We even drew a poster for it! You'll notice that there are quite a few signatures on the bottom:



That's because we had a team, hard at work on it, before the event began!



( Collapse )

The next stop in our Adventuremice Tour was Totnes! The East Gate Bookshop had put on some terrific displays:



It's a lovely bookshop, do stop in if you're ever in the area!



Big thanks to everyone who braved the rain to come invent new places in the Mouse Islands and draw with us!



Here's local picture book author Clare Helen Walsh, who came along and drew Pedro with us. (Thanks, Clare!) The photos are by Nikki Marsh (@turnthepagetotn on Twitter) whom I met on what was possibly my first visit to Totnes, for the Turn the Page Totnes festival she organised way back in 2016.

( Collapse )

This week my Adventuremice co-author Philip Reeve and I travelled to Farnham, to meet young readers at the Farnham Literary Festival.


Tiny felt mouse created by Bronnie fro BookwagonUK!

But we started meeting young readers even before we got to Farnham, because we were sharing a train with a group from Blackawton Primary School who were on their way to London to visit the Houses of Parliament. Some of them were reading Philip’s books and they all wanted autographs, so we felt like Big Stars (but only in carriage C of that particular train).



( Collapse )

Famous for its ships and seafaring, Plymouth was the perfect place to start off our Southwest Tour for the first book in our brand-new series, Adventuremice: Otter Chaos!



Huge thanks to Mel, Siobhan and Jen for hosting us, and to everyone who came along to draw!


Photo collage tweeted by Jen at @WaterstonesPly

If you'd like more drawing activities, you can find them on our new website, Adventuremice.com.



While we were there, @threedoamazing tweeted this amazing drawing: 'Laurie is really enjoying Adventure Mice Otter Chaos!... His favourite character is Fledermaus!' Look at all the detail work! Nice going, Laurie!! (Philip and I are very fond of Fledermaus, too!)



We also signed some new copies of Kevin vs the Unicorns, and Philip got a chance to sign his Utterly Dark books. Just like Adventuremice, the books are also set on imaginary islands! They're for much older readers (say, 12-adult), but so fabulous - do read them yourself if you get the chance!

Hope you all had a good World Book Day! A lot of schools celebrated differently: some simply by reading, others by dressing up as their favourite book characters, and still others dressed up as an adjective (in Worcester, teacher Cathy Spence dressed up as 'Debonair' and in Oundle, a teacher wrapped in bubble wrap said she was 'Fragile'). I am terribly biased in that my favourite costumes are always when children dress up as characters in my own books (who wouldn't, what a rush!).



I can't share all of the amazing photos because of social media privacy settings, but here's a couple fabulous costumes! The photo above is a terrific Kevin the Roly-Poly Flying Pony from my Patron of Reading School, Chagford Primary, shared by Chloe Brooks-Warner. With a giant custard cream biscuit! And here's another great one shared by Chloe Banks, See-through George from Jinks & O'Hare Funfair Repair:



My co-author of the book, Philip Reeve, replied "But all I can see is a Penguin, hovering in mid air..." And Chloe replied, "Uncanny right?! (Perfect character for a kid who hates dressing up but has lots of grey clothes - thanks!)" and added, 'He’s had the penguin since he was born. He absolutely fell in love with George when we read it." Yay!

So where was I on World Book Day? Funnily enough, it was technically the launch day for our first Adventuremice book, but World Book Day is kind of a crazy day to launch a book because everything's in such a tumult with dressing up and a zillion other people are also launching and talking about books. (You'll be hearing a lot more about Adventurmice soon!) I spent the day at Oundle Lit Fest in Camridgeshire, and I focused on books the children were already familiar with, the Grumpycorn picture books. Check out Oundle Great Hall, isn't it amazing?! Organiser Helen Shair brought in loads of schools including Laxton Junior School to celebrate with a big author event and I gave the a story and taught them how to draw their own Grumpycorn book covers to inspire their own stories.



We also went out of town to visit Stanion CofE Primary School, who were joined by Brigstock Latham's CE Primary School...



...and they drew excellent pictures!



( Collapse )

When my co-author Philip Reeve and I arrived in Worcester, we were met with signage most sinister...



But we quickly discovered that we did not have to fear SWANS(!) because we would be fiercely defended by children at St Barnabas CofE Primary School with sharp rainbow horns. Very intimidating, don't you think?



We'd been invited by teacher Cathy Spence, who'd hosted us years ago in Great Malvern, and we happily accepted, knowing how well prepared the children would be.



And we were not disappointed, in fact, we were quite overwhelmed at how much work the children had done. Mrs Spence took us on a tour around the school and every class had made this fabulous bunting based on our books (even the Adventuremice book that wasn't due to come out for two days!).



One thing that made me happy was to see how many of the children had used the drawing materials on my website for each book. I make them, but I never really know how many people actually see them (are they getting out there?), and it encourages me to keep doing it when I know they're being used.


( Collapse )

It's here... Adventuremice.com!



Philip and I have been working with my designer Dan Fone on this website that's absolutely PACKED with drawing activities, a big Teacher Pack, a character quiz (which character are YOU?), downloadable certificates and posters, a peek at the first chapter of our new book - Adventuremice: Otter Chaos - and even a shop selling the original watercolour illustration art!

Stuart and I finally got a chance to visit the grand building that is Newton Abbot Library, together with Philip Reeve for their first Pen & Ink Comic & Book Art Convention. Inside, the place was bustling, with lots of tables (including Ashburton's Gnash Comics shop!).



We were thrilled to see Rachel and Isabel Keen, whom I'd seen lots of in medieval costume on Philip and Sarah's Arthurian film set! (Rachel works at the library, so it all made sense.) They helped out with our event, which had a good turnout and was a lot of fun.



Thanks to everyone who came along and drew comics with us!



( Collapse )