We Have Lift Off...

Yesterday morning's walk up onto the moors was very interesting, although I don't think I've been quite so wet (with my clothes on at least) in a very long time. It rained consistently, and with great determination, the entire time. Not only did it eventually get through my waterproof and my seen-better-days boots, but also penetrated my backpack, so I thought at first my water-bottle had leaked. But no, just rain: LOTS of rain.

The good news (which I can hardly believe) is that I walked like a demon over uneven rocks, through lumpy, knee-high heather, bounding up hill and down dale and suffered... no pain!

The buses back into Sheffield are one an hour and I had to run along the road (squelch, squelch) to catch it. I sat panting, dripping embarrassingly onto the floor, but grinning like an idiot. No more nasty injections between my toes and maybe, just maybe, I'll manage my walking holiday after all.

Thanks goodness I went in the morning though - by 4pm, as I was drawing my poor, wet boots, the thundering on the overhead windows made me stop and look up - it had turned to hail stones!

Test Drive...

Today I have to test out my new feet (although this drawing is of my old, unsuspecting, apparently healthy feet!).

I managed my Friday visit to Top Valley School in Nottingham OK (wearing my new shoes!), but that wasn't very taxing, toe-wise at least. It's a week since my last batch of 'zapping' and the podiatrist has asked me to do another hour of hill-walking today, to see if there is any remaining problem.

I would like to feel optimistic at this stage, but I'm not sure: I've been having twinges over the weekend, just walking around normally, so there is some chance that I might have a deeper neuroma somewhere, that hasn't yet been treated. There's still - just about - time to do another treatment before our holiday, but I do hope not!

This morning's sky is gun-metal grey and the forecast is awful, so one thing is certain: I am going to get very wet, but I'll let you know how I get on toe-wise. In the meantime, please join me in 'healthy feet' thoughts...

Bye Bye Roses

Remember the bunch of red roses that I got as a birthday surprise from John? Well, they lasted over 2 weeks, but have eventually been consigned to the bin. While I was poorly with my foot, I did a little drawing of one of the healthiest remaining flowers. Which, in a way, makes them last forever:

I decided a Photoshop tint of red was a must!

About Time Too!

With my various foot dramas, I never got around to telling you about last week in Shropshire: yes, on Tuesday afternoon I packed my suitcase and abandoned John yet again.

I was invited to do a couple of days for the Shrewsbury Bookfest again, but when Woodside School in Oswestry got in touch - luckily just round the corner - I added them on to the front of the trip.

The children at Woodside were lovely and it was a colourful, creative school, with art everywhere. The Head got involved too, which doesn't always happen, and looked in throughout the day to watch what I was up to. At the end, the children bought loads of books: always a very positive indicator about the school.

I was looked after brilliantly by Mrs Jones. She and her husband gave me a bed for the night and even took me out for a lovely meal when I arrived, all frazzled from my long train journey - thank you!

I met up with Julia Jarman on Wednesday evening, when I moved on to Shrewsbury, and the Bookfest team took us for a very nice dinner (where I ate far too much - definitely a pudding too far!).

Festival organiser Sophie Peach booked us into the beautiful Meole Brace Hall: a lovely period house in its own grounds, tucked away in an almost Secret Garden kind of way - locals I spoke to had no idea it was there!

I made friends with resident Dolly, a little black terrier, who nosed her way into my room and kept me company, letting me stroke her ears.

This was my bed (nice eh?):

On Thursday morning it was all go - two days of events, first in the tiny Clive Primary School and then Market Drayton Infants: a mix of various workshops and storytellings, with everyone from Reception (age 4) to Y6 (age 10), which kept it nicely varied.


I caught my train home on Friday afternoon by the skin of my teeth - running and puffing up the stairs with all my stuff, and jumping in moments before it left! I got back that evening and just flopped.


A big 'thank you' to publisher Hachette for footing the bill for the festival expenses - they are always really brilliant about that stuff. Much appreciated guys.

And a special thank you to my 'minder', Lucy, for taking me necklace-shopping on Thursday after school, to buy myself a birthday present from my mum (thanks Mum!):

Ouch!

I was very brave and didn't cry, although I did have a bit of a funny turn at one point - you know, where shock makes you go all weird and queasy? Apparently I went very white but luckily managed not to disgrace myself by throwing up.

It took 2 hours and was the same as last time, except in stereo, and with LOTS more anaesthetic, so I didn't kick him in the teeth again! John came to hold my hand and help me hobble to the car afterwards, with my two bandaged feet.

I couldn't manage stairs on my own, so spent all of yesterday in the living room, alternating between reading, sketching and phoning friends and family for lots of lovely sympathy. John pre-prepared a lunch for me, which I drew before I ate it:

I went back for a check up last night and the doctor took off most the bandages, just leaving the dressings between my toes where he spiked me. This is what they look like now (the yellow is not bruising but iodine):


I am clearly doing something wrong though, to have my toes in this mess, probably not wearing the right shoes, so I treated myself to a pair of healthy, but quite funky, new ones they were selling at the clinic:

No, No, No, No, No!!!!!!

Remember my ghastly foot procedure in January, involving the soldering iron and the vampire stake?

Problem 1: it should have been all better by now. I'm not too bad on a day-to-day basis, but went on a hill walk and was crippled after only an hour: ice-fire pains with every step - ouch! Back to the specialist for another ultra scan.

It turns out that the nerve he zapped between my toes is now completely healed and normal (hurrah) but... I have another neuroma between the neighbouring toes and, even more fun, yet another on my other foot!

Problem 2: To celebrate my 50th, John & I have a walking holiday in Italy booked very soon. We will be walking from A to B between little villages all day every day, for over a week. Mmmm.

Here are the offending tootsies, as sketched last week in Shrewsbury (more of that visit later):

Solution 1: tonight I have to be zapped again, but on both feet this time (eeek). This will put me totally out of action for a couple of days, but I should be walking again on Friday (handy, since I have a school visit in Nottingham that day).

Solution 2: At the weekend, once the dodgy nerves are both freeze-dried to death, and so pain free, I have to go on another walk, to make sure there is nothing else giving me pain that needs doing.

I'm really looking forward to this evening (not). I'm crossing fingers it all goes OK this time (but not toes...)

My Birthday Surprise!

OK, I know I can't milk it forever... but I never did get to tell you how the actual day of my birthday went.


Remember I was visiting Hasland Infants in Chesterfield? Well, it was a nice day, reading stories to little ones who were, as usual, lovely.


For lunch, I got a school dinner to eat in the staffroom (I learned early on not to eat with the kids in the dining room - you never get to swallow a mouthful, as they just bombard you with questions the whole time while your food quietly cools on a fork poised permanently in the air before your mouth).

The teachers were having a staff meeting around me, so I just got on with munching. All of a sudden the door opens and a huge bunch of red roses appears! Confused, I thought at first it was from the school, but it was the work of my romantic hubby. He had gone to my website, to find out which school I was at, tracked down a local florist and got them to deliver me flowers as a surprise!

Mrs Lomas, who'd invited me, explained it was my 50th, so the staff meeting had to stop while the teachers all sang 'Happy Birthday to You'. I think several of them were a bit jealous of those roses!

It was interesting, trying to manouver them in and out of the train with my suitcase of books too, and I got some smiles. When I got them home, I even discovered a little box of chocolates hidden away in the bottom of the bouquet. What a sweetie he is!

New Sketchbook!

I'm doing lots of train drawings again at the moment. 'Frank' was the final page of my last book, so I've started a brand new one. For anyone who's interested, they are A6 Daler-Rowney 150g: nothing fancy, but solid and nicely handbag-sized!


I like to get the 'new sketchbook' thing out of the way as, even after all this time, I still don't like that clean, empty first page. Also, I'm a bit of a show-off (you probably noticed that) and if someone asks to look at my book, I like to have at least a few back drawings to show them. That's also handy, in case the one you are working on is a bit rubbish!

I had a cracking couple of days last week though, and filled the first 14 pages in just two trips (see, told you I was a show-off). I showed you some last time, here are some more.

As you can see, I've been relaxing in my few days off between school visits by treating myself to some time colouring my sketchwork in Photoshop.

By the time you read this though, I will be off again in Shrewsbury for their festival, which means another couple of nice meaty train journeys, to re-stock with new victims!!

Book Week School Visits: Workshops and Storytellings

I've had so much to tell you recently, that my school visits from last week haven't had a look-in: so sorry guys!

Lyndon Green Infants in Birmingham is a wonderfully creative school, with outstanding displays everywhere and ceilings dripping with drawings on strings.

I visited this time last year so the children all recognised me, which was lovely. It's so sweet to have little voices shouting 'Look, it's Lynne Chapman!' every time you step into the corridor. I had to be careful though not to read the same stories!

The next day was a very early start (6am taxi to the station!!!) as I had to get all the way to Newcastle to visit Our Lady and St Anne's. It was well worth it though: another very nice day with Rec through to Y3, plus I did loads of train sketches on the way.

I read Giddy the Great a couple of times, for a change. I've not done that one in a while, so we did the illustration workshop where the children draw Giddy balancing on crazy towers of their own invention.

Mrs Hodgson had ordered loads of books on behalf of the children, and I was signing for nearly an hour after school, until my hand was hanging on by a thread. We had to do a crazy dash to the station and I caught my train with just 2 mins to spare!

This is already a super-long post ('what's new' I hear you cry...), so I'll tell you about my birthday visit to Hasland Infants in Chesterfield later on.

My New Book: Rumble Roar Dinosaur!

I have a new book out!!

Do you remember Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! that came out last year? Well Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur! is the sequel. Like it's predecessor, it's being published in hardback and paperback simultaneously, which is quite handy.

Both books are a series of fabulous poems by Tony Mitton, featuring all your favourite dinosaurs (plus a few more you probably won't even have met before!). Both books have big flaps on every page too.

When you lift the flap on the above illustration, this Archaeopteryx leaps into flight, to gobble an unsuspecting dragonfly:

The cover illustration for Rumble Roar Dinosaur! was not created as a unique piece of new artwork, as is usually the case, but adapted by combining aspects of various illustrations from the inside. You can see how it was done here.

You can also see some of the illustrations-in-progress on my earlier blogs when I was working on the book.

The book has an interesting history, as it started off with a different publisher, Kingfisher, and was originally going to be combined with Gnash Gnaw Dinosaur! and called Dippy Diplodocus.

As usual, if you would like a signed copy of Rumble Roar Dinosaur!, with your very own drawing in the front, do email me and I'll post one out to you. It's just £5.99 paperback or £10.99 hardback, plus P&P.

Class 2

No, not Class Two at the Zoo this time, but Class 2 at Barlow Primary in Dronfield, a school I visited to celebrate World Book Day.


Mrs Broad has sent me some cute drawings that her Class 2 have done, based on my books. I thought you'd like to see them.


A lovely selection kangaroos & emus form Kangaroos Cancan cafe, Giddy Goats and child-eating anacondas. Thank you Class 2!

War Comics in Riseley

I'd like to introduce a very enterprising group of friends from Margaret Beaufort Middle School in Risely: Bailey, Rhys, Michael, Stuart and James (plus there's also William who was elsewhere when I took the photo).

During my visit last week, teachers set up tables in the hall, for me to sign books over the lunch break. These guys asked if it would be OK to set up their own sales area alongside.

They were selling war comics that they had written and drawn themselves. They photocopied them and sold them at 10p each (or 12p if signed).

They had also illustrated a series of posters and, if you bought the full set of comics, you got a free poster signed by all the boys. Well, how could I resist??

They made £13.40, which is pretty good going, I reckon. They were generously donating half the proceeds to Haiti.

Well done guys! Who knows, you might be getting your comics published one day. Don't forget to get yourselves those sketchbooks!

If you would like to see some of the exciting project work that was created during the day of my visit (including caterpillar pizza!), check out the Picture Gallery.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yes, today is the day that .... pause for dramatic effect ... I turn 50 - O.M.G.!!!!!!!!!!! How did this happen?

How am I spending my birthday? By the time you read this, I will be in Chesterfield, telling stories at Hasland Infant School. Okay, work rather than birthday revelling, but I'm not sure it counts as work if you are having fun, and I'm sure I will have a very nice time (hi kids!).

I'm saving the BIG PARTY until later in the year: I'm doing a combined effort with a friend, who's 40 this year (making me feel even more ancient). More immediate celebrations are going to involve chilling out all day Saturday with close friends, getting lots of nice food brought in and quaffing at least one bottle of champers I hope...

Sketches from Last Week's Travels

On Sunday evening I scanned in some of the train sketches from last week. It was a fair old trip to Bedford and back, so I did a few. As you can see, I was feeling a bit tired by the time I got there, having come straight from my day in Yew Tree Primary:


I went to Bedford to visit Margaret Beaufort Middle School in Riseley. I gave a couple of big lectures in the morning and I don't think I've ever had such an enthusiastic reception - the applause got me quite choked up to be honest.


When I've more time, I'll tell you about the remarkably enterprising war-comic artists I did my signings with over lunchtime (hi fellas!).


At the end of an equally lovely afternoon (dropping in on various art workshops and helping the children where I could) I spent the evening with friend and author Julia Jarman, who lives just up the road and who was kind enough to put me up.


People tend to think of author / illustrator teams as friends, but they often live at different ends if the country and sometimes never get to meet at all. Most meeting-up happens either at publisher's Christmas parties, or at literary festivals.

Since both Julia and I do lots of festival events, we have got to know one-another really well. It was great to spend a couple of nights chatting and relaxing with some wine and good food (great risotto Julia - thank you!).


On Saturday morning, Julia and I drove up to Corby for their Play on Words festival, where we spent the day having fun reading our stories of snakes, pirates and derring-do in Corby Library.


That evening on the train, nearly home, I was lucky enough to have a child across the aisle, sitting quite still, playing a game. His mum asked to see my sketch, as she said he was a very keen artist. If you're seeing this, hello Frank - keep up the good work!