Fix This

Hacking and slashing.

Ruthlessness could never be described as my defining trait. Of late, though, I have been ruthless. Ruthlessly putting my darlings to the sword as I edit the thumbnails for the next Punycorn book, Punycorn and the Princess of Thieves.

Armed with notes from my editor, I have been assigned the task of putting the first half of the story through an editorial boot camp and come out the other end toned, focused and moisturised. But how, you ask? Easy. I scribble an inspirational note at the top of each page, "Fix This".

My sketchbook is no longer full of lovingly rendered drawings of barbarians with double-headed axes in ballpoint pen. It's mostly pages of barely discernible scribbles like the example above. Comics is problem solving and the problem is often pouring a pint of milk into a half pint glass. Even with two hundred pages there isn't enough room.

I hit the sketchbook and figure out what can be taken out and still make sense. Like a game a Jenga, I want to remove as many blocks as possible without the whole tower collapsing. Words, sentences, paragraphs, panels and pages are excised, switched around, cut, pasted and binned.

Fast forward the days of copious weeping, swearing (middle grade readers cover your ears) and tea drinking and ten pages are gone from the first hundred. Some good gags and panels hit the cutting room floor never to be see the light of day (unless you subscribe to my patreon where I hang up all my metaphorical dirty laundry).

The result is a leaner, clearer storytelling machine that will delight readers at some point in a mist-shrouded future.

If I was able to foresee the schedules of the publishing gods, I'd buy a lottery ticket.

Punycorn published by HarperCollins

Blackwells/ WHSmith/ B&N/ BAM!/ Bookshop.org/ Hudson/ Target/ Walmart/ Amazon/ AmazonUK

• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0358571995

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0358571995

• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 12 years

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You can read more about the making of Punycorn, from pitch to publication over at my patreon.

And if you read and enjoyed the book please leave a positive review online where editors will read them and continue to pay me to make more books in the spirit of generosity and kindness that publishing is known for.

patreon

An honest mistake, M'lud.

I now have a bunch of my books on Kindle. Dumped, Breakfast After Noon, The City Never Sleeps (short story sampler), Super Hero Pink(previously Gum Girl...it's a long story), Glister and Princess Decomposia.

I have DRM-free PDF versions of more of my backlist on Ko-fi and Gumroad

I still have books out in the world: Sunburn, Paris, Kerry and the Knight of the Forest & the awards nominated The Book Tour. Support my efforts through my store – digital comics – patreon or by leaving a positive review online.