Big birthday, I turn 40 today! I have a zillion things to blog about (I've been in the USA for three weeks) but I'm scrambling to get ready for our first stage performance of Pugs of the Frozen North at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Saturday. (You can see all my upcoming events here.) So detailed blog later. But if you want to give me prezzie (yay, prezzies!), how about drawing a pug for me? Here's one way you could do it:
(Printable version here)
We put 66 pugs into Pugs of the Frozen North and I'm hoping maybe I can get 66 pug drawings, all with their own names, each a member of the sled team. I just got to see the final printed book two days ago, mega-exciting!
A few people have already let me know they've found it in the shops (notably Foyles in Waterloo station). Here are my friends Dulcie and Laurence finding out that the book's dedicated to them, and Katie getting stuck in:
Okay, I'm 40, I'm allowed a reflection moment: I used to wonder how many books - if any - I'd have published when I turned 40 and, not including pamphlets things and mini-comics, I'm up to 19 books, which I'm really happy about. I used to be awful at public speaking and I've gotten better at it. Best of all, I'm getting to work with talented colleagues I really enjoy spending time with, having a laugh and creating things together. I still need to work on time management skills, making the time to see friends and taking time to stay healthy, but I feel like I'm doing what I've always wanted to do. And I'm really excited that people have responded to the #PicturesMeanBusiness campaign; it would be brilliant if illustrators started finding it more feasible to keep working in this profession and the career started becoming more accessible to people from diverse backgrounds.
Ah, one more thing, here's a pug who wanted to be in the dogsled team but who kept failing at auditions. We finally let him in on charm, and you can read the book to find out if the dog sled actually managed to go anywhere. Pugs aren't famous for being agile on ice. (Thanks for the link, Caroline Smith!)