Christmas Doodles Book in Colour!

Anyone who read my last blog on March 31^st will know that I mentioned the latest project I was working on - but couldn't say any more until I had asked the publisher's permission.

Bryony at Michael O'Mara / Buster Books has given me the go-ahead so I can now let you know that Christmas Doodles (one of the most fun books that I have ever worked on) is going to be coloured - or at least part of it. I have to leave some areas white for the kids to colour, which is proving hard to do.

This is a sneak preview of one of the doodles & will have a caption at the top saying something like Fill the plate with Christmas Cakes. The new coloured version, as far as I know, will only be on sale in the United States - but who knows what will happen in the future?

Finished my Web Site!

I've finished my web site at last! Hopefully it is now clearer to look at, easier to find your way around & faster to download, etc. etc.

Now I have to get on with some work. I can't say much about it at the moment because I haven't asked the publisher's permission - but the picture above is a clue.

Web Site Revamp

I'm actually embarrassed to write this but, once again, I have redesigned my web site. It was for a number of reasons - I wanted to practice my html5 skills & I wanted to learn how to put a favicon on it. This is it:

And, most importantly, the previous web site was too cramped and oppressive. At the time I liked all the grey but, after feedback, realised it was just too much. Now I've gone the other way, researched on minimalist design, & learned to love white space again.

If You Love a Bear

I had some very good news at the end of last year. Walker Books wrote to me to let me know that one of my books, called If You Love a Bear, was being republished & it came out this month. They've brightened up the cover by adding a stronger blue background & I'm really pleased with it.

It's one of a set of ten books all about bears, is called the Bear Hug Picture Book Collection, & sold by the Book People.

These are the ten books:
This is the Bear - Sarah Hayes & Helen Craig
You and Me, Little Bear - Martin Waddell & Barbara Firth
We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury
The Sniffles for Bear - Bonny Becker & Kady MacDonald Denton
Kiss Good Night, Sam - Amy Hest & Anita Jeram
Snow Bears - Martin Waddell & Sarah Fox-Davies
The Little Bear Book - Anthony Browne
My Friend Bear - Jez Alborough
Down in the Woods at Sleepytime - Carole Lexa Schaefer & Vanessa Cabban
If You Love a Bear - Piers Harper

Canvas and Thread Xmas Fair

I took part at the Canvas & Thread Xmas Fair yesterday at the Grange Institute and had a really good time. The idea of these events is to encourage anyone to get creative, have fun & make something - anything - painted, knitted, sewn, stuck together, etc. etc. It's all low-key & the whole idea is to enjoy making stuff.

The next event will be held in Spring. I will be going & hope you can make it too.

Christmas Card on the Way!

It's all starting to happen at last! I've been in touch with the people printing my Christmas cards (who have been brilliant, by the way) & they're sorting out my order. They will be ready for the Xmas Fair held by Canvas & Thread on December 1st at the Grange Institute in Grange Over Sands. You can click on the link below to find out more.

Also sorted out my copyright infringer. It all turned out to be a bit surreal (you can read what he wrote on Facebook) because he emailed to tell me that his ebook version of my book was only online because my "representative" (presumably my publisher) could only view it that way. Apart from the fact that this is nonsense, does he not realise that I am in contact with my publisher? They'd never heard of him, of course, & the YouTube video was promptly removed. It's good to know that YouTube take copyright infringement so seriously.

Christmas Cards- Wherever They Are?

http://www.piersharper.com/blog.html

My Christmas card proofs haven't arrived yet & I can't wait to see them! Wish the printer would hurry up as I am fit to pop! Also getting some business cards printed for the first time in about a hundred years. For some reason, I felt I needed too. It feels so grown-up & so unlike me.

I've also been working on making this web site quicker to download. Hopefully the pages are appearing on your computer screen a bit faster.

Mess Monsters Birthday Cake!

After all that mess (pardon the pun) with the copyright infringer over my Mess Monsters book, it was really lovely to find out about this Mess Monsters cake.

Bespoke Celebration Cakes have done a fantastic job, especially as all they had to work from was one of my pictures. They've very kindly given me permission to post their photograph &, if you click on it, you can visit their site.

My Christmas cards have been posted to the printers and I should get the proofs fairly soon. Here's a one of them:

Clicking on the picture will take you to the Greetings Card page. Hope you enjoy.

Copyright Infringer!

I've been incredibly busy getting my Christmas cards ready. One of the things I like to do to relax is wander through the internet in the evening. I'll choose any random topic, like a colour or chocolate animals, & see where my searches take me. It's amazing what you can find &, most of the time, I learn or see something new.

A couple of nights ago I searched for one of my book titles, called Mess Monsters. Last time I did this I found some photos of a mural that some children had painted based on another one of my books, this time Snow Bear. It was all very sweet and flattering & it gave me a nice fuzzy feeling.

Unfortunately this recent search wasn't so enjoyable. Someone has decided to sell an e-book version of Mess Monsters (without my or the publisher's permission) & was advertising it on YouTube. Apart from the fact that this is illegal & very cheeky, it was so badly done! I think this has annoyed me almost as much.

He's stretched the pictures from the original square page:

To this - so it fits tablets:

How amazingly lazy is that!

I've emailed him twice - though still haven't received a reply. I wonder why? And I've also reported him to YouTube & asked them to remove the video. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

On a more positive note: my Christmas cards are almost done. I'll be sending them to the printers at the end of the week & putting pictures of them on this web site at the same time.

Cute, dark and Graphic Christmas Cards

I know that I've been going on about Christmas cards a lot recently, but they are nearly done now. There will be twenty designs in all & they fall into three groups - cute, dark & graphic. I suppose the image above gave that bit away?

Some of the cute cards will be in the Snow Bear style & the graphic ones will be crisp, simple designs that will look stylish on the mantlepiece. The dark cards are where I've had fun & turned Christmas cards into something a bit different. They're hard to describe & you'll either love them or hate them. I'll be posting all of the Christmas card designs on this web site next month so you can see for yourself.