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A lovely review for On My Way in Reading Time!

On My Way has just received another lovely review, which was published in Reading Time, the CBCA’s online review magazine. The review’s by Lisa Hoad, and here’s a short extract:

On My Way will delight young readers (three years and above). It is a perfect choice for a magical bedtime story whilst its basic rhyming pattern, rich visual language, and themes of outdoor explorations in nature make this a great title to share in an early-years setting.

You can read the whole review here.

 

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2 Comments Posted on Art, Authors, Book talk, Celebrations, creative process, Illustrators, New books, Picture books

Creating On My Way

Today is the official publication day of On My Way, my picture book with Simon Howe(Scholastic Australia), and to celebrate Simon and I have written about what it was like to create the world of the book. Enjoy!

Creating the text, by Sophie Masson

It was just an ordinary drive to town, on an ordinary day. I was in the car when the first line of On My Way unexpectedly popped into my head for no apparent reason and as soon as it did I could hear this little voice excitedly telling ‘Mumma’ all the extraordinary things that could be seen on the way to school and the shops and so on: rather like my own kids used to do when they were small!

Normally, when I think of a good idea for a story, I put it down in my notebook–but I was driving, and couldn’t stop. Yet the little voice was so insistent on telling the story RIGHT NOW I knew I couldn’t wait either 😀

So all along the 15 kms between home and our local town, I was trying out lines aloud to myself, repeating them over and over so they’d stick in my head until I could write them down and start working on them properly!

Right from that unexpected start, this has been such a fun text to work on, as the child tells what seem to be wilder and wilder stories about more and more unusual things and yet the patient, busy mother doesn’t appear to be surprised by any of it… Even in the car, repeating those first few lines, I knew there would be a big twist–and that was such an enjoyable thing to create!

I was so delighted when I first saw Simon’s storyboard and then as time went on viewed more developments of the magical visual world he’d created for my characters. And I just loved the clever and wonderful way in which he’d revealed the twist. That excited little voice I’d first heard on a boringly ordinary drive to town, had really come to life and that was just so exciting!

Creating the illustrations, by Simon Howe

The manuscript for On My Way was an invitation to participate in a story far more than many book texts. The writing gave me a relationship between two characters, but left who they are, where they are and what they’re doing entirely up to me. The world of the story could have been a thousand things – a thrilling proposition for an illustrator.

Rather than getting bogged down in the possibilities of the world, I came to a decision fairly quickly. The mother’s dialogue in the text is warm, but also dismissive. I imagined her preoccupied with an activity and only half-listening to her child, who in turn is only half-helping, and mostly getting in the way. I was gardening quite a bit at the time, and thought I’d have the mother in the story doing the same. So I had my setting – a garden. I wanted the book to be full of warm greens, so this environment was perfect. It also allowed me to easily place hints to the final twist!

Like an increasing number of book illustrators, I chose to create everything digitally, using Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq display. The textures and subtleties available to digital artists today are astounding, and while you can usually still spot the digital from the traditional, it’s certainly becoming harder. Regarding process, I’m a drawer rather than a painter, so I almost always start with lines. I use two brushes that mimic the look of pencil, and scratch out the picture fairly roughly. When refining the lines, I like to leave some of that roughness.

I then use a brush that mimics the look of watercolour, and I build up the colours over several passes. The last step is to use a pencil brushed again to add highlights where needed. That all sounds very traditional, but the benefit of digital is that it’s all done in layers, and it’s very easy to correct and adjust things at any stage of the process.

There was a little back and forth with the publisher over some details, but the original vision remained largely unchanged from the first roughs, through a second draft and finally into the finished art. After all the pages were finished, the publication was delayed for a significant amount of time. Somewhere along the way, I decided to tweak some of the artwork. Then things got a bit out of control and I ended up re-drawing and colouring the entire book! I should really have left it alone, but I was happy with the small improvements I made.

It was a thoroughly pleasurable book to illustrate, and I’m grateful to both Sophie and Scholastic for trusting me to wrap a world of my own around such a clever and funny piece of writing.

 

 

2 Comments Posted on Authors, Book talk, Creative life, Illustrators, New books, Picture books

Interview with Paul and Beth Macdonald, authors of The Hole Idea

It was exciting recently to get a signed copy of a beautiful new picture book, The Hole Idea, written by Beth and Paul Macdonald (known to many in the children’s book world as owners of the wonderful Children’s Bookshop in Sydney) and illustrated by well-known illustrator Nathaniel Eckstrom. It’s also the first title for new publisher Book Trail Press. It’s a gorgeous book, with an imaginative, funny, touching text, lively illustrations, and beautiful design, and will I’m sure find many fans.

I caught up with Paul and Beth to ask them about the book, and their new and exciting enterprise.

First of all, Paul and Beth, congratulations on the publication of The Hole Idea! Can you tell us something about how it started? What was the inspiration for the book?

Thank you for your congratulations.

This book represents two births.

We have set up a new imprint Book Trail Press– a collaborative publishing house that publishes four picturebooks a year.

We have both written books in the past but were keen on writing picturebooks.

The Hole Idea started with an idea formed in a writing workshop led by children’s author Zanni Louise.

You are joint authors of the book. Can you describe what it was like to work together on the text?

We work together and live together seven days a week. This was a really natural process. We discuss the main framework and our ideas. After we get a first draft written –the fun begins! We argue (not too much) and push back and forth. After 47 drafts and much debate our book was ready to go.

At what stage was Nathaniel Eckstrom the illustrator brought in? And how did the three of you work within the picturebook experience?

Although Beth is an illustrator (and has a picturebook coming out in July with Dirt Lane Press) we understand that a great picturebook has to be a marriage of text and pictures- the illustrations must speak to the text and vice versa. Nathaniel Eckstom was the perfect choice for this story. He is the award winning illustrator of seventeen books- and we knew his style was a natural fit for Finnian. He was bought in at the beginning stages – after just the first few drafts. We were keen to make it a collaborative process so wanted his input from an early stage and actually met around the table to develop the book together.

What was the process like for you, from first spark to production of the book? What were the challenges and pleasures?

Taking a book from the idea, through the writing and design process into print was a huge learning curve for us. We really wanted to understand all aspects of creating books. We really believe that it is a collaborative creative process. The book is the result of a team of six people- two editors, a great designer, two authors and an illustrator. We met, we discussed, we crafted a work that we are proud of.

We also learnt so much about the printing process and lots of new jargon!

The Hole Idea is also the first title in your new Book Trail Press publishing enterprise. How do you see Book Trail Press developing?

Book Trail Press is a boutique imprint. Our goal is to create four picturebooks a year. Books with heart, incorporating quality language. Books that focus on the creative process. We have commissioned an illustrator for the second book and the third is underway.

Paul, you are of course also an award-winning and popular bookseller, with the Children’s Bookshop being the most loved and long-lasting specialist children’s bookshop in the State. How did your deep knowledge of literature and the industry as a bookseller influence the way you approached the creation and production of The Hole Idea?

I felt a wee bit of pressure knowing that we had to create a quality book. We surrounded ourselves with the most talented creators we knew and recognised that creating a great book is a collaborative process. While we were asked to submit the manuscript to several publishers, the challenge was to produce a book from first spark to delivery of the first print run. It’s been a fast learning process.

You are now covering pretty much every major aspect of the book industry, as authors, publishers and booksellers! What’s it like, wearing all those hats? And what have you learned, as part of the process?

Wearing multiple hats is good- you need to see ‘the book’ as many things. It is first of all a narrative that must resonate, but it is also an art object, a possible focus for teachers in schools and must leap off the page as a great read aloud.

Hopefully the book sits proudly next to quality picturebooks in good bookshops and is a book that booksellers are keen to handsell! You can’t forget the importance of the bookseller!

Finally we know that creators need to promote their work through social media and get on the road- we are off to Freemantle, Melbourne and Brisbane after we have hosted two launches in Sydney. That’s the fun part!

At launch of the Hole Idea, Children’s Bookshop, May 25: Paul(at back), Nathaniel and Beth. Photo by Kristin Darrell, posted on Facebook

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Lovely first review of On my Way–even before it’s officially out!

There’s a lovely first review of On My Way, my soon-to-be-released picture book with Simon Howe (published by Scholastic) . The review is by Lyn Linning in Magpies Magazine, and here’s a very short extract:

A short, charming picture book for the very early childhood years, On my Way encourages children to use rhythm and rhyme and to use scale when interpreting images…

You can see more in the image below (the review is not available online).

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Nice hardcover copy of my thesis!

I graduated officially as a PhD at a ceremony at the University of New England last Saturday, and yesterday I picked up from the univesity printery another official mark of my PhD study: a hard-cover copy of my thesis, both novel and exegesis, elegantly bound in a wibalin finish, in an ‘Oxford Leaf Green’ colour, with silver lettering. It cost a bit so it was something of an indulgence, I suppose 🙂 but worth it to me as a permanent reminder of a wonderful three years.

My thesis by the way is not available to access officially as I’m exploring publication options but if you are interested, you can read online articles I wrote which are based on chapters in the exegesis, see below:

Mapping the Undiscovered Country: a brief introduction to contemporary afterlife fiction for young adults, published in The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children’s Literature, Vol 20, no 1, 2017.

Angel Time in the Undiscovered Country: The Cultural and Philosophical Context of Contemporary Afterlife Fiction for Young Adults, published conference paper I presented at the 2018 Asian Conference on Ethics, Religion and Philosophy in Kobe, Japan.

No traveller returns: the liminal world as ordeal and quest in contemporary young adult afterlife fiction, published in Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, Vol 26.1, 2018.

 

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Great new review for War and Resistance

I’ve just discovered a great new review of my novel War and Resistance on the excellent Read Plus blog. The book was reviewed by Carolyn Hull. Here’s a couple of short extracts:

Highly recommended for readers aged 13+…Sophie Masson has created a wonderful story weaving the circumstances of the young girl, Sasha and her family, with the German boy, Dieter, at a time when the world was about to explode again into war……Bravery, spies, lies and the Resistance movement are all entwined in this interesting and compelling human story in a time of war.

You can read the full review here.