joy in the post!

My first copy of When Titus Took the Train arrived!

Isn’t it pretty? 😀 I’ve been carrying around the proofs for ages, but it’s so amazing to see it as an actual book. I’ve posted a bunch of free download activity stuff over on on Titus’s website.

And more! I gave a copy of my Dear Diary mini comic to the amazing illustrator Chris Riddell at the Carnegie Greenaway awards, and he was so chuffed with it that he promised to send me a copy of his own mini, Hairstyles of American Civil War Generals:

He wrote, This mini comic thing is addictive! Yay! He’s going to call his next one The Book of Colours in Black and White.

And the post made miracles again! Here’s a packet from the fabulous David Lasky, who makes comics in Seattle. He’s been working on a graphic novel about the Carter Family. David included some of his early mini comics (Dear Ella features an awkward relationship with an attractive life model and My Flying Dream is, as the title suggests, about a dream he once had. I love that he wrote on Salmon Bay Cafe paper. My sister took me for brunch there on a visit several years ago and it made me a tiny bit homesick.

Here’s a closeup of his comic strip:

Thanks so much, guys! And thanks, Bridget, for the diary you sent! 😀 Gonna be doing a lot more diary writing this year.

And fresh in, Alex T. Smith just sent this photo via Twitter of our books nestled together in the shop tent at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Vern and Lettuce a whole month early! (See you in Edinburgh tomorrow, Alex!)