Two different sets of friends have both had babies in Thailand this week, one by birth and one by adoption. The adopted one has such cute elf ears, I had to draw her.I just found the website for a Swedish designer I met recently named Jakob Westman. Jakob's in London to catch all sixteen of the Sparks' concerts while they're here, a concert for each album.
In a blog post, if I can read the Swedish correctly, he called me a barnboksillustratör, which is such a lovely, cosy name for my job... I make boks for wee barns! I don't speak Swedish, but when I was little, I went to a church where a lot of the last verses in the hymnal were written in Swedish; if I was bored, I'd sometimes sing the Swedish line instead of the English version just to be ornery.
Jakob recommended me to look at the work of Stockholm illustrator Jojo Falk, very funny and quirky.
ztoical has just posted a few entries (including mine) for her upcoming anthology. (If you're doing it, don't forget the 8 Aug deadline.)I've been asked to be on a couple DFC panels: Sat, 9 Aug at the Caption comics festival in Oxford, and Sat, 27 Sept at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature. If you're reading this blog and going to either of those, do leave a note and I'll look out for you!