How I met my illustrator


I first met the illustrator for Some Shorter than Others at a public dance commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tienanmen square massacre.  I went along to capture the event to share it with those that couldn’t make it on the day.  Neither of us knew then where that day would lead.  I was already searching for an illustrator for my short stories and was fielding enquiries from both here in Australia and overseas.  Unfortunately none of them worked out as planned.

A few weeks later I posted online that I was going to be doing my first ever video clip for my poem Rainbows and if anyone wanted to assist I’d love the company.  Sylvia had the day off and offered her services.  During the course of the shoot we got to chatting and when I told her of the book and my desire to ad a picture for each story, she said she was an illustrator.  Well the first thing I did when I got home was email her the job offer.

The first picture came back and as had happened before I loved it, my only hope this time was that the others would all arrive too.  And over the space of the next few weeks one after the other these characters I’d only seen in my imagination up to that point started filling my inbox.  It’s worn off a little now but those first few weeks it was so surreal seeing my imagination interpreted by someone else on the page.  I am so happy with the end result and look forward to collaborating with her on future projects.

You can see more of her diverse range of artwork tonight at the Fed Uni art auction, in Camp Street 6pm for a 7pm start.

The official book launch is this Sunday at the Ballarat Library at 2pm.

The original hand drawn illustrations are currently on display at the Ballarat library until sept 11th.

and did you know you could win a collectors edition copy one of only 10 ever to be printed…..

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