Stories stack, unless you share them

Name changes, Awards, Windows, Murals

I’m never quite sure where to start with these updates, my mind tends to boil up with too many emotions when I try to just ‘be myself’, so I think I’ll start with some housekeeping…

The Wandering Pen

I’ve changed the name of my Substack, it used to be titled ‘Making Graphic Novels’, but the more I wrote, the more it became clear that it was much broader in scope than that, and really became a place for me to share a little more of my truth, behind the scenes of making Graphic Novels. So I’ve renamed it to ‘The Wandering Pen’, because my mind wanders ever so easily. What do you think? I considered ‘The Wrestless Pen’ too, but feel there’s more adventure and whimsy in a wander. I hope you don’t mind the name change, and I hope you’ll stay with me from here too.

Awards

My book (HARU: Book 1 - Spring), was nominated for a Leeds Book Award, and I was invited up to Leeds to take part in an event, be part of a panel, and awards ceremony, and I still can’t believe it but I won the award for ‘Middle Grade Graphic’. It was such a mindblowing day, meeting so many kind and interesting creators, hi fiving kids who liked my book, signing books. I think the most amazing part was hearing the studen’ts reading from my book, it just hit me. It really was just one of the most joyous and heartwarming days of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever won anything based on merit before this book, but now I’ve won two awards (the other being a Broken Frontier Award), and it’s just amazing. I sit here with tears welling in my eyes as I type. I try not to think about it too much otherwise I get choked up, because it’s been such a long road to get here, at times I was working in a dark corner of the house while stuck in a dark corner of my mind, juggling coding websites and struggling to survive a tumult of personal trauma’s that stack and unravel (a story for another Graphic Novel I think), and sometimes that weight just kinda sits there, and when you release a book you never really know if anyone is reading it. So I try not to think about it.

Anyway, here’s a picture of the award, beautifully designed by a student, and crafted by Redbeard Mosaics. It sits proudly on my wall, beneath a petrified frog my Mum once found in the basement of my childhood home…

The Ringo Awards

The Ringo Awards are still open to nominations and votes (until Thursday) & you can vote here!
I’d really appreciate it if you have a minute to lend me your vote. Every little moment like this helps my book to find people, and it really does add up to make a huge difference.

Windows

I was so happy to be able to paint the display window in Bristol Central Library recently, it was so much fun to spend the day there with so many kind and passionate librarians. The setup is a little different than your usual shop window painting, in that it has no rear view, so the glass is effectively the canvas. This means the approach to painting is pretty standard, but light pours through every fleck of paint, which is a challenge itself, like painting on a lightbox. I love painting, though so it was a very happy time.

Here’s how it turned out…

Murals

The window painting gave me a kick up the bum to do something I’ve been talking about for a while; a mural in my Son’s clubhouse (it’s a closed up fireplace really, but he calls it his clubhouse). He requested a Haru mural, which is lucky because I know how to paint that stuff.

And here’s how that turned out…

What next?

I’ve been working on a new print, using a combination of Mono printing, for the base blue, and Lino printing, for the black, then finishing it off with Gold pen. I’m going to put them in my online shop soon as part of a special little thing. I just have a couple of other packaging aspects to sort out first. Watch this space.

Here’s a picture of how the print is looking…

Anyway, this is the part where the housekeeping is done and my mind wanders. I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, daydreaming of my childhood home. I grew up in South Wales, where I used to see those hills, those thick green forests, those dead towns and those old roads. You could see the Castle from our house, the parapets standing above the trees. I remember, when I was a child, our neighbour (a retired farmer) took me and my brother to see his sheep. He popped us in the back of his transit van, no seats, no seatbelts, not even anything to hold on to. It felt like he was driving so quickly as I clung on to my brothers legs and felt my stomach flip nervously. I don’t remember the sheep, but I remember the journey, sliding around from wall to wall, half laughing, half terrified. He used to leave his surplus home grown veg on the wall between our houses, and he would give me seedlings to nurture. I remember the look on my mum’s face when she read his obituary. It’s funny how sometimes life can feel so slow, yet sometimes if you blink you really do miss it. I wish I could’ve been a better child, more attentive and caring. South Wales is a place of such beauty and tragedy. It’s another thing you carry with you, but you don’t always know it until you’re far away from it.

That’s enough wandering for today I think.
Thanks for being with me, friends!