I tried to keep the idea of the eyes throughout the series of five books, but the anguish I went through to get it just right.
Take the latest cover for Ten Discs.
First I thought I would paint the seahorse as the cover, but the more I thought about it, the less I liked it.
Then I painted the magpie, a British bird for all my overseas readers. This likes flesh, but is not a raptor. Again I lived with the cover, but then dumped it.
Next I painted the Owl. This gave me what I wanted, big eyes looking out at the people as the reader held the book open.
I feel all you budding authors should be aware of the birthing pains for a book.
Here are the covers as painted. See what you think.
Tuesday. just finished a drawing of the carnival parade in the Caribbean. My second Camper Van visits Antigua for Carnival time and this is part of the parade. It has taken four days of individual drawings, then cutting and pasting them into the picture, but I am very happy with it. The lead Skull master tosses the skull staff and then catches it as he walks in front. Watch this space for a publishing date.
Ten discs, the fifth in the series of Scott’s adventures has now been published.
It was quite a challenge to write this one, trying to find ten forms of confrontation for Scott to solve, and the way he was to solve it proved in its writing.
The times I deleted a chapter, or cut sections out of a chapter, nearly drove me to say, forget it. And yet, here it is. Ten Discs, number 5 in the series is in print.
Fancy a chase through ten different worlds, mystical or magical?
Like Wizards and Witches?
This is the book for you. Adults and the children I aim the books at, love the stories, and not just here in the UK, but around the world.
Folk in Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and USA have all received a copy in the post from me signed. So don’t think this is just for kids. It’s suitable for everyone who likes a story in each chapter.