Devon Libraries "Meet the Author" Interview

It was a great honour to answer some illustraty questions for Max the Dog, from Devon Libraries. Here's a link to read it online, but I've copied it below as well:

Meet the Author

It’s time for a very big “hooray” as our featured illustrator is Susie Tyler who works in one of our libraries when she is not drawing beautiful pictures. She has been working on a new book with Devon author Coralie Sparkles: if you re-arrange the letters you get her other name, Amy Sparkes (well, nearly), one of my perviously featured authors. You must check out “Estella and the Falling Star” if you have a chance. Over to you, Susie…

	Have you always been an illustrator?
	I have always loved drawing and knew that I wanted to be able to do it as a job. When I started work in a book shop after college, I fell in love with the illustrations in all the children’s books and something clicked. I realised that was the job I wanted above all else, and started researching lots of different illustrators, and looking closely at many different books.  Gradually I got better at it, and as time passed, people started asking me to do drawings for them. Slowly, it became a real job!
	Where do you get your ideas from for your illustrations?
	From real life, usually, or memories, or sometimes from dreams I’ve had. I might see something beautiful or funny out and about, and that might trigger a story or a picture, or both.
	What is a typical day for you?
	It always starts with a big cup of tea, and many more cups of tea throughout the day! And there are always my two cats trying to get on my lap or lie on my work! I try to do as much drawing as possible before getting on with other jobs like emails or scanning images, or all the little bits and bobs I have to do to get my work ready to sell in shops and at craft fairs. If I get tired or stiff, I go for a short walk or go and run some errands, or hang up some laundry. I also work part-time in a library, so my days are quite split up sometimes.
	Do you have a favourite place where you work on your illustrations?
	Yes, I have several favourite places, depending on the weather and what I’m doing. Generally, I sit up in our attic room at a big round table under a skylight, or in our “nook”, a deep window seat with piles of cushions, or in the garden under a big brolley. Sometimes when it’s really chilly I sit on the sofa in the lounge under our snuggliest blanket that my Mum knitted.
	Which of your own books/characters do you like best and why?
	I really love a character called Gideon, a young boy who sits in a tree in one of my favourite drawings. He is kind of carefree and loves nature. I love finding wonderful trees to sit in. I also love a fat little robin that I drew for a Christmas card. He is very dumpy and kind of cool, whistling away with earmuffs on.
	Who was your favourite author when you were a child?
	Oh, so many! I loved all of Shirley Hughes books, and Janet and Alan Ahlberg. Peepo and Each Peach Pear Plum, Dogger, these were all dearly loved in my home. I also adored all the Brambly Hedge stories as they were so homely and full of delicious little details to pore over while Mum and Dad read aloud at bedtimes. Later I loved Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, and quite a few horsey stories I must admit. I liked old fashioned adventure stories.
	Are you working on any new material now?
	Yes, I have several ideas on the go. I hope to illustrate another book in the Mermaid Legends series by Amy Sparkes (writing as Coralie Sparkles.) And I have some of my own picture book stories to illustrate.
	Do you have any advice for would-be illustrators?
	All I can really say, is to keep going. If you love drawing, just keep practicing. Don’t be disheartened, and be prepared to make mistakes or to be disappointed sometimes. That’s not the end picture! Look at other artists’ work and form you own opinions and tastes. Look at different styles and different materials. Draw things you enjoy drawing, but also draw things that challenge you.

New Beginnings. Quitting the Day Job!

It's happening! Illustration is taking over!

Things are going to be a bit different round here. I'm finally going to be able to govern my entire week, and put energy, time and focus into my illustration, full time. I've got heaps to be getting on with, and it's a good mixture of stuff. There are bookish ideas in the pipeline, and in the meantime, I have a list of commissions to do. I also want to develop my card range; add new designs and find new stockists.



For me, the Golden Age of Cullompton Library,

working with Matt and finding him to be a friend for life.

This is a drawing a made for a poster advertising our

Storytimes for little people.

I'm going to miss all the lovely people I've met at the library, but I'm able to keep in touch with many of them. Some of my bestest friends have come into my life via the library, so for that I will be eternally grateful. It's been brilliant in lots of ways, but the best of it has been and gone, and so much of the job has changed beyond recognition, into something I have no interest in. The time has come to move on and chase this dream of mine.

I'll be working from our attic studio, while Andy works from home in his new job too, on the next level down in our spare room. We've just turned the guest bedroom into a sumptuous office. I'll be able to spend lunch breaks with my best pal!

So, with just under 3 weeks to go of employment, I am getting extremely excited to get going on lots of projects. It's amazing that this is really happening! Thank you God for all your blessings and provision.



The Sticker Card I drew about 7 years ago,
to reward our regular visitors to Storytime.



This is Matt following his own dream - making music as a
living; teaching Ukulele. It was an honour to draw this for
him as he pursues music. Things have changed!





A Mermaid Legends How-to: Style your hair just like Shelley's.

Inventing and drawing the hairstyles for Coralie Sparkles' mermaids in Estella and the Falling Star was just about the most fun I've had with pencils and paper.

I love Pippa's short brown bob, and Merina's free-flowing, long-as-her-tail, shiny black tresses. I also love Estella's crinkly golden curls, with her simple little plait dangling down beside one ear.

Shelley

But it was really fun creating a more intricate hair-do for the mermaid with attitude, Shelley. She is after all, the Guardian's daughter. Her jewellery hints at her status, and so her hair had to measure up. I could imagine Shelly being used to being pampered, and perhaps having a loyal servant to arrange her hair in exciting ways each morning. I pictured her with a dressing table full of ribbons, shell decorations, jewels and beautiful silver bangles and pendants.

Darcie with Shelley's hair-do.

With two slim plaits that start at her temples and link up at the back into one high pony-tail, a ribbon is tied in and weaved down through the rest of Shelley's hair, plaited for a section, tied off, and tied again at short intervals to create a series of bulbous bobbles, before trailing off in a nice long tassle at the end. 

My friend Darcie (otherwise know as Shellanna Shimmerfin - to check out your own mermaid name, click HERE.) has been growing her hair for some time and was happy to try out Shelley's stylish plaits. We took photos at every point to make it really easy for you to follow the steps and try it for yourself. 

1. Brush hair thoroughly and part in the middle. Take a section from the front, from the parting to above the ear. Plait it until its long enough to reach past the middle of the back of the head. Put a tie around it while you do the other side.

2. Hold the two plaits out of the way while you brush the rest of the hair up into a neat, high pony-tail and secure well. Then bring the plaits round and add into the pony-tail by securing with a separate tie. This just makes it easier so you're not trying to hold onto too much while securing the pony-tail. I can tell you it was easier drawing this hairstyle than doing it with real hair that wanted to slide all over the place!

3. Take a long piece of ribbon, of whatever colour you choose. Shelley had turquoise in the story, but imagine a coral pink or a starfish gold or silver, or seaweedy green!

Secure it round the hair-bands that are holding the pony-tail.

4. Then wrap the long part around the ponytail to hide the knot and the bands, then loop through itself to stop it unravelling.

5. Now you can start your big plait, weaving in the ribbon with one of the three strands. You can keep the plaited section as short or long as you like. Then fasten with a hairband.

6. Then wrap the ribbon round the hair-band again and thread it through itself or the hairband to keep it in place. Then lead the ribbon down through the next section of hair and secure with a hairband again. I pulled the hair gently so that it spread out into a nice bulging bobble.

Repeat this stage again to create another bobble of hair, and keep going if you have ultra long hair, or just do one if you are running out of length. This is why the plait section may vary a lot too. 

7. After each section is tied off with a hairband and wrapped around with the ribbon, you can tie a wider ribbon at the bottom to finish it off in a nice bow. Leave a nice big tassel if you can.

Then you can enjoy swishing and flicking your plait behind you. 

If you have a go at Shelley's hair-do, please send us a photo of how it turned out. Or you might like to experiment and find your own way to tie up long hair.

If you have short hair, there are still lots of ways you can play with plaits and pony-tails, buns, twists and clips. Maybe you could find a way to slide in a shell or two, or some beads or stars! We'd love to see all your mermaidy hair-dos. Email them to:

susie@mermaidlegends.co.uk

and we will post them up in the gallery on the Mermaid Legends website.

A Mermaid Legends How-To: Make Nana's Seaweed Buns

 As some of you will know, I recently spent a year blogging about the making the yummy food within classic children's stories.

Now, a brand new story for children has been published, with my illustrations in. Estella and the Falling Star. And I couldn't resist trying to make the seaweed buns that young mermaid Merina enjoys eating at her Nana's house. 






The book describes them as seaweed buns, and I had to draw Nana carrying a plateful of them. I pictured them as a bit like scones. A nice soft doughy bun that I could imagine Nana patting out roughly, rather than rolling the dough and using a cutter.


For the dough, I use my favourite scone recipe, shared with me by a friend whose scones I  have admired and enjoyed at many lovely teatimes. I've added seaweed, cheese, herbs and spcies. Feel free to use your own scone recipe and tweak the extras if you like. 

Ingredients:

8oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder 
1 1/2 oz soft butter
1/4 pint milk (you may not use all of this)
pepper (to your taste)
pinch salt
pinch or two or paprika
pinch of cayenne papper
big handful or two grated cheese (I used Parmesan, but cheddar will be fine.)
a generous sprinkling of dried oregano
a pinch of dried thyme
A big handful of seaweed (Make sure it's edible. I bought a packet of dried seaweed on ebay, because my supermarket was out of stock. Put it in a bowl of water for a few minutes until soft. Then squeeze out the water and use scissors to snip into little pieces.)

Place flour and baking powder in bowl.
Add butter and rub in to make a breadcrumb texture. Then add all the extras - salt and pepper, oregano, thyme, cheese and seaweed. Gradually add milk to make soft dough.

Squidge into a ball, without squeezing it too tight or handling it too long. Chuck onto lightly floured surface. Pull off evenly sized lumps, about the size of a plum, lightly roll in your palm to make a ball, place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and press down to give it a flat top and bottom.




If you want to give it an extra Mermaid Legends feel, you could press the back of a ribbed shell into the top, before brushing them all with milk.
Bake at 220C for ten to twelve minutes.

Eat while just still warm if possible. They're really yummy with tomato chutney.

The Magic of Mermaids

Do you think there might be some way we can work together? said the amazing Amy Sparkes, one day, to the amazed Susie Tyler. 

Said the Susie Tyler, "You name it."








And this little unknowing mermaid was the trigger that set in motion an exciting cascade of suggestions, realisations, conversations and illustrations. 

All I knew at first was that Amy was keen on something fantastical. I started filling a sketchbook with dragons and fairies, and this one little mermaid. I always wanted to be a mermaid. At the swimming pool, my friends and I would slip into mermaid identities as our skin hit the water. Invisible dolphin friends would surround us and we would twirl happily through the water imagining oceanic surroundings and adventures.

Whilst drinking gallons of Lady Grey tea and drawing away, I took a snap of this mermaid and emailed it over to Amy to see if I was on the right track. It was at this point that Amy decided the world was ready to greet her cast of mermaids who inhabit Sapphire Seas. It was time for a new story to be launched. 

Estella and the Falling Star was ready and waiting for its illustrations, and now that it's really here, printed, and in my hands and on my bookshelf, I look back on the last few months as a happy, dreamy blur. Full of many many shells and tails and a LOT of hair!

I have adored finding the visual identity of Merina, Estella, Pippa, Shelley and Nana. I had to start by exploring lots of hairstyles. Although colour is very important for the front covers, we couldn't rely on the mermaids' colour differences to set them instantly apart from one another inside the book.

Being black and white, they needed to be complete individuals, with very differing hairstyles and clothing. Amy and I had a lot of fun (and a lot of tea - it just so happens we share a love of Lady Grey teas as well as mermaids) deciding what hair worked best for each character. Pippa has cropped hair which we felt echoed her cheeky nature and sharp wit. And it was nice to break with the tradition of long hair for one of the mermaids. 

Once they were all designed, I was delighted to re-read the latest draft of the story and find that Amy had slipped in a few extra adjectives to mention their lovely locks. The fun of hearing an author describe a character that you have visualised is almost too much!

Gradually the finished illustrations built up and we were able to go full steam ahead with the publication. And here it is. It is a book. 

Fictional Food Adventure: Interview with Jane Brocket, author of the book that inspired my challenge.

As you know, my entire Fictional Food Adventure was inspired by reading 'Turkish Delights and Treasure Hunts', a brilliant and thoughtful booky gift from one of my most treasured friends. Jane Brocket is the talented author of that book, and of many others, centered around baking, knitting, sewing and all good homely delights. 'Turkish Delight and Treasure Hunts' is actually the American version of the original British 'Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer', which is even fuller of wonderful classic children's books and recipes to explore. Jane has very kindly answered all the questions that I was eager to ask her about books and baking, so that I could share them all with you here. So, to celebrate the end of my Fictional Food Adventure, here are some lovely thoughts from Jane herself:

Jane, you are obviously a connoisseur of classic children's literature. Can you tell me what you feel is at the heart of a great classic?

I think it’s very difficult to define what makes a true classic and I also believe it varies according to each child. Some read for plot, others for character or situation, some for imagined worlds and others for reality. What every classic has, though, is an authentic authorial voice which doesn’t patronise the reader, pace because children don’t like it when books grind to a halt with ‘boring’ descriptions, characters the reader can relate to, details which make the setting easy to imagine, and children doing things on their own (there are so many absent parents in children’s classics). I always liked a good cry, too, so many of my classic classics would be weepies in places (Little Women, Little Lord Fauntleroy, What Katy Did are all of that ilk).



As a child, what books did you read over and over again?


When I was young, I was so keen to discover exciting new books and have different reading experiences that I rarely reread any books. However, I think I must have read a fair few Enid Blyton books twice because each time I was so totally swept away by the stories and they didn’t take long to get through – I seem to remember the details very clearly. So the great joy of writing Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer was having the chance to savour so many of my childhood favourites all over again, and to discover many new ones, too. 

What are your three all-time favourite children's novels from any era?

Having just said I rarely reread books, I definitely read the following more than once: 
Mr Galliano’s Circus by Enid Blyton was the very first paperback I ever read on my own and I can still recall the thrill of being swept along by the story and the details of the caravan and the catering – without any help from an adult. The book is no great masterpiece, but it was a milestone in my reading and got me started. I was also desperate to have a holiday in a tiny yellow and green caravan after this. 
I adored What Katy Did even though I completely missed the Christian redemption message. I loved Katy’s character, was horrified by her accident, and spent a lot of time wondering if I would improve and be a better person if I broke my back and was confined to bed. I also relished all the details of the American setting – so very different to Stockport where I was reading the book. 
I seem to have had a blithe lack of awareness of Christian themes because I also read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe without ever picking up on them. This is another book I romped through and had to go back through to enjoy it all over again. The idea of stepping out of the back of a big wardrobe into a different, snowy world enthralled me and I wished I could do it. Maybe this also contributed to my perennially itchy feet (and my fascination with Antarctica)?


If you could go on a picnic with any children's book character, who would it be? What do you love about that character?


Jo from Little Women. Mostly because we’d be able to lie on the grass, read books and eat apples, instead of having to do lots of energetic stuff, although I’d ask her to demonstrate how to leap a fence and applaud her athleticism. We’d talk about books, families, ambitions, life. She’d give me tips for writing and I’d give her tips for cooking (I’d also persuade her to marry Laurie). I’d love spending time with her because she’s impulsive and impetuous, doesn’t care about clothes, how she looks, or any ladylike nonsense, is affectionate and optimistic, and would always be stimulating company.

What essential provisions or treats would you take on an adventure?

I’d have a big basket or knapsack filled with bottles of home-made lemonade and ginger beer which I’d chill in a brook or hang off the back of a rowing boat, a whole loaf’s worth of sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper (fillings: cheese, ham, chicken), lots of hard-boiled eggs and a twist of salt, a large cherry-filled cherry cake, a paper bag of ripe plums, and a large bar of chocolate. There would also be somewhere to stop en route for sticky gingerbread, freshly made macaroons or a creamy ice cream.

Have you ever had a baking disaster like Anne of Green Gables, leaving a crucial ingredient out of a cake or forgetting something's on the oven?

Plenty. My pastry crumbled and refused to roll out just a couple of days ago, and I had to chuck it away and start all over again. I’ve left baking powder out of cakes made with plain, not self-raising, flour and pulled very sad, flat messes out of the oven. I’ve wrecked fudge, and made toffee which has never come unstuck from the bottom of the pan. I’ve made rock-solid plum jam which tasted disgusting, and have burned many things over the years. Finally, I realised I needed a reliable timer that I could sit on my desk or carry around the house with me so that I wouldn’t miss the oven’s beeping! 

Of all your scrummy recipes, what do you love to bake or eat the most?

Rock buns – both baking and eating. When I was growing up, real rock buns were a bit of a joke: dry, dusty, rock-hard and very unappealing. On the other hand, fictitious rock buns seemed a lot more interesting, especially when eaten at the meetings of Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven. So I always wanted to make them, to see if I could make nice Secret Seven rock buns rather than dried out rock buns. I adapted a recipe, adding glacé cherries, a generous amount of nice dried fruit, and nutmeg, and using soft brown sugar instead of caster and hey presto, I got deliciously squidgy, generous rock buns. I’ve been baking them this way for years and years, and they are still my favourite quick bake, and always delicious with a cup of tea.