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#HistFicThursdays - Quetzalcoatl by Ian Hunter - Author Inverview

  Today's #HistFicThursdays blog is an exciting interview with  Ian Hunter ,   as part of his  Yarde Book Promotion  tour! Read on to find out about his influences, inspirations, and the adventures which readers can expect to share in with  Quetzalcoatl . But first, let's meet the book... Blurb Jessie Mason lives with her nose in the pages of history. But she is discovering that the past is a dangerous place where she doesn't belong, and knowledge alone is not going to save her. Jessie’s life has become a series of terrible challenges. Now she must lead her friends in the hopeless task Grandfather set them: hunt down and destroy the Time Stones. But her leadership has already failed. Tip has left them and Abe has simply disappeared, while she and Kes are trapped in the heart of an ancient empire in turmoil. Thrust into a fractured, threatened Mexica nobility, Jessie is immersed in a way of life, fascinating and disturbing in equal measure, yet powerless bef...
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NaNoWriMo Day 22 - Illustrations


Friday 22nd November – Illustrations

I respond best to visual learning styles. I’m always looking for pictures. Whether it’s a pre-existing landscape just begging to be photographed, or the words of a writer on the page calling out to be transformed into art.



I’m not the best artist in the world, but I can make a decent attempt at drawing. But the hardest thing about illustrating a book is pleasing the author, while the hardest thing about having your own work illustrated is relinquishing your hold on it.



So, what I tend to do now is wait to be asked to illustrate things, or else I illustrate my own stories. Over the last few years, I’ve offered to illustrate people’s favourite poems for National Poetry Day, and this year I had my first published illustrations in “Rosie Jane and the Swadgrump”. When we launched the book in the school, the thing which most impressed the children was how I’d managed to do the characters' hair(!) and how I’d reproduced the same character, from scratch, in every picture. Their awe really gave a newbie like me a massive confidence boost! This was the first time I’d shared any of my digital graphics with the world, creating most of the pictures in strong, bold colours using the computer’s shades rather than my own.

One thing I’ve learnt (although, not always done!), is not to fill a picture. Look at the needs of your audience, and the needs of the illustration itself. Sometimes, empty spaces aren’t blanks, they’re vacuums which draw the reader in.



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