[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-todays-big-news-four-new-books-with-philip-reeve":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"PHEW! I can FINALLY tell people now! I'm going to make chapter books for the first time! And I get to make them with one of my best friends, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philip-reeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a>! I made this picture to celebrate today's news:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/seawigs_promo_pic1b_lores-be4a233a09.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nI had to wait until the article came out in \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thebookseller.com/\">\u003Ci>The Bookseller\u003C/a>\u003C/i> today, and fab writer \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/lucycoats\">Lucy Coats\u003C/a> just tweeted me this photo of her copy at the Bologna Book Fair, so... Yay! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/bookseller_mcintyre_reeve-43ae058e26.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l27/jabberworks/Uploads%202012/bookseller_mcintyre_reeve2.jpg\">Click here\u003C/a> for a larger version, e-mailed in by The Bookseller's \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/Baughly\">Ashley Baugh\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nOur head of publicity at \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/OUPChildrens\">Oxford University Press\u003C/a>, \u003Cb>Elaine McQuade\u003C/b>, asked Philip and me to write a bit about what it's like working together. A bit of it made it into the article, but here are the extended versions, if you'd like to read them:\\r\n\\r\nPhilip explained how our collaboration started:\\r\n‘I found mermaid-turned-illustrator Sarah McIntyre in a tidepool; somehow she’d washed up in Devon. She had to rummage through a pile of clams before she could find her salt-covered specs and peer up at me. I thought she might sing some siren song and lure me to my doom, but all she wanted was chocolate biscuits. So I gave her some from my rucksack, and we sat on the beach while she told me about the outlandish places she’d visited. \\r\n\\r\n'It quickly became obvious that we should write a book together, so I set to work, and Sarah chipped in with new ideas or little drawings whenever I wasn’t sure which way the story should go. Needless to say, our first story together turned out to have a sea theme, but I hope there will be many more to follow. Making books with McIntyre is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done! (Except she does tend to eat all the chocolate biscuits.)’\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/mermaid1-3c2b5a78bc.jpg\">\\r\nI wrote:\\r\n‘In one of Philip Reeve’s \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Lies_Arthur\">last books\u003C/a>, he conjured up Merlin, the Arthurian storyteller who created the most famous British legends. Well, can you imagine getting to work WITH Merlin? Philip knows how to spin amazing yarns, but he’s no solemn mystic on the hill... well, he sort of is, he lives on misty Dartmoor, and he summons up his suits from another era. Okay, he is a mystic on a hill. But he is SUCH good fun! One of us will say something a bit stupid, then the other will say, ‘But, could you imagine if...’, and the other will pick up on it and turn it into something quite bizarre, but very funny. \\r\n\\r\n'\u003Ci>Seawigs\u003C/i> came about because we both love dressing up, a bit over the top, and I’d just designed some mad alien wigs for an exhibition called \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/402367.html\">Monsterville\u003C/a>. Philip wanted to write a sea voyage story, and I was in the middle of making a silly monkey illustration for the Children’s Writers & Illustrators Group (\u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/467499.html\">CWIG\u003C/a>). Philip pronounced the acronym ‘kwig’, but I said ‘sea-wig’, and suddenly we started thinking, what if islands could wear wigs? What if they got a bit competitive about it? Let’s throw in a near-sighted mermaid. Some sea monkeys, too, just for a laugh! And the rest is \u003Ci>Seawigs\u003C/i>. We hope you enjoy it!’\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cb>Go read Philip's take on the big announcement \u003Ca href=\"http://philipreeve.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/four-new-books-by-mcintyre-reeve.html\">over on his blog\u003C/a>!\u003C/b>\\r\n\\r\nUntil then, you can read \u003Ca href=\"http://thefleecestation.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/the-seawigs-are-coming/\">The Fleece Station studio's History of Wig-Wearing\u003C/a>, and here are some Monsterville wig previews... more dressing up to come!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/402367.html\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/monsterville_wigs8-9124b70e3d.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nIf you follow my blog, you'll have already seen this video we made awhile back, but here's a little insight into the World of Reeve.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"1426\"/>","2012-03-20T19:57:00.000Z","todays-big-news-four-new-books-with-philip-reeve",[],"today's big news... four new books with philip reeve!",1776628721622]