Another step forward

I received an email yesterday from Lightning Source letting me know that my proof copy had been generated, which is greatly encouraging as I must have got the formatting right!

I can't wait to hold my new creation in my hands and see how it looks as a whole, rather than as individual paintings.

The first time I ever formatted my own book, I got the cover wrong three times and got so stressed that I gave myself shingles. Then one morning, I somehow saw the template in a completely different way, and bingo! - I'd got it.

Relief and apprehension

At last my work on "A Perfect Nest for Mrs Mallard" is complete - or at least the writing, illustration and set-up. Marketing (for me the most difficult part) is never done. I was up with the dawn yesterday morning, trying to get in a hour's painting before I went to work and last night saw me chained to my computer until nearly midnight, trying to get the PDF just right before submitting it to the printer. How many times did I go through the process only to notice a small typo that a spell checker would not pick up or a thin black line at the edge of an image?

Having ordered a proof copy, I will be on tenterhooks until it arrives. That first thrill of holding your creation in your hands can be immediately dashed by turning the page and seeing a typo staring back at you. Why didn't you spot it during the hundreds of times you viewed the file prior to submission? The proof of my first children's book literally made my blood run cold! My illustrations were cut in half and paired with the wrong half of other pictures, and worse still - I had nobody to blame but myself for page-numbering the book wrongly (although I had read the guidelines so many times...you seldom notice your own mistakes).

Hopefully, experience will make this proof a more of a pleasure to receive.

So close but so far!

I am really hoping that this weekend, I will be able to complete "A Perfect Nest for Mrs Mallard" but the last illustration is proving a devil. The school caretaker provides Mrs Mallard and her ducklings with an escort safely across the carpark and to the lake. I decide against a portrait of the caretaker (sorry, Terry - I know you were looking forward to your 15 minutes of fame), as scale-wise it would have made Mrs Mallard and her babies too tiny. So, I have them marching across the page in front of a halted car. This causes a further problem, as I don't want to show a real number plate and can't think of a good fictional one. I've tried masking the plate with the legs of watching schoolgirls (rather manga style) or having the truncated legs of the caretaker walking past but as yet, nothing is pleasing me. Think I need to give it a rest for today and come back to it refreshed tomorrow (although I've tried the same tactic for the past 3 nights and still no breakthrough!)

Love is in the Air

As I begin my final illustration for my new book, "The Adventures of Mrs Mallard", nesting season is certainly now in full swing at Platt Fields Park (Manchester, UK). I went for my early morning walk before work and was almost deafened by the noise of the Canada geese. The coots have evicted the moorhens from the small floating island that had been created for them and are busy building a nest decorated with crisp wrappers.

Every time I pass the school's courtyard, I look into the ivy under the magnolia tree, trying to spy 'Mrs Mallard', the real live duck upon whom my story is based. I saw her and Mr Mallard sat on the roof of the bungalow yesterday but she is never seen amongst the ivy until her eggs have actually hatched and she is ready to lead her ducklings to their permanent home on Platt Fields lake. Thank goodness she can always rely on one of the school's caretakers to help her lead her brood from the secure courtyard, safely across the carpark and to water.