Blacktown Talent

I spent the last two Saturdays at the Max Webber Library in Blacktown, with a lot of talented, keen young authors and illustrators. Sue Whiting and I were running a Picture Book Making workshop - Sue spent the first week helping them come up with a story, then the next week I worked with them on layout and illustrations, from thumbnail roughs to final pages. Then we ran a session together, and helped them polish their books. It tickled me pink to see the range of their ideas - ice cream floods, goblin kings, injured dancers who dance again, a girl trapped in a grey world dreaming of colour, princesses and monsters, Superhero dogs ... and that's just a few of them. Wow. I feel very boring by comparison. Now the kids have another month to finish their books and hand them in, and the library will print them - I'll see them all again at the BIG launch party when the books are released. Thanks, guys - you were lovely to work with.